To Forget to Remember
by hydraling110
Summary: Kagome can't remember coming to Feudal Japan when a demon alters her memory. She won't know anyone until it's restored, and she'll need a lot of help to remember... Permanently Discontinued
1. Time Split

**Disclaimer - my, we just love these, don't we? Following suit... I do not own Inuyasha, happy! You made me admit it, now go...**

_Chapter One, Time Split_

"And where do you think you're going? Not back to your stupid era, are ya?"

"Leave me alone Inuyasha! I need to see my family; it's been a couple weeks now. You wouldn't understand, you hard-headed idiot!"

The half demon in question came crashing to the ground in front of Kagome's bike, causing the girl to slam on the breaks and almost go flying off of the contraption. She managed to stop before hitting the unmoving person in front of her. She glared at him.

"Damn right I wouldn't. It doesn't mean you can go though; we're close to getting to Naraku, you can't go back yet! You're acting more stupid than normal," Inuyasha said a bit too casually.

Kagome grew slightly red with anger.

"GET OUT OF MY WAY!" She demanded hotly, trying to pedal forward against him. Her companion wouldn't let her, seeing as he'd held out a hand and kept the bike in place with a solitary clawed finger. His ears were perked in interest, golden eyes sharp on her.

"What's the point of trying to move if you know you're not going to, wench?"

"AH! I GIVE UP!" Kagome screamed, stopping her furious pedaling and using her right leg to hold the bike still. Her expression lightened falsely and she smiled.

Inuyasha had his ears back and hand off the bike within half a second of her mood shift. He knew what always followed it.

"You better not Kagome. You wouldn't dare. I'm warning you..."

"SIT BOY!"

BOOM! Inuyasha slammed face first into the ground with a stream of curses following shortly after. Looking satisfied, Kagome sped away from him and eventually leaped down the well, bike and all, without another word to the arrogant hanyou.

Sango and Miroku, having heard the argument, came into the well clearing not much longer after Inuyasha was able to stand up again. He glared at them as they approached, all too ready to hear the scolds he had been accustomed to by now.

"Inuyasha," Miroku began, "you really should be nicer to Kagome. Wouldn't you want to see your family?"

"Feh, you stupid monk. In case you haven't noticed, my family ain't one I'd like to see. Where the hell have you been? Ignoring Sesshomaru, huh?" Inuyasha asked in an irritated tone, flicking his ears in agitation. What was the lecher of a monk going on about now?

"Of course, how stupid of me… but you have met Kagome's family, have you not? You should know if she likes them or not. Considering she's always sitting you when you try and stop her from leaving, I think she does."

"Ya think?" growled an increasingly angry Inuyasha.

"Why yes, I do."

"I was being sarcastic, you stupid monk!"

"Inuyasha," Sango interrupted, stepping between the peaceful Miroku and fuming Inuyasha, "Calm down. She'll be back. We go through this every time she leaves, why can't you just let her be for once?"

Inuyasha snorted, not answering the question and looking the other way. "Why can't you stop defending her? What's in her era she needs so much that she's got the nerve to leave? One of these days that… Shippo, get off of my head!"

The kitsune had leapt onto his head and was biting an ear.

"Leave Kagome alone! She didn't do anything to you, you big meanie." Shippo kept trying to tear off the right ear, but was punched off of the head he was perched on in a couple moments, falling in defeat and bouncing slightly across the ground, stopping when he hit Kirara.

"If Kagome were here she'd sit you right now!"

"Well," Inuyasha growled, cracking his knuckles, "She ain't here, now is she? I'm gonna give you a five second head start you fuzz ball…" He warned. Squeaking in fright something about wanting Kagome back now, Shippo started running madly towards the village. After the five second were up, Inuyasha bolted after him with ready claws, leaving Miroku, Sango, and Kirara standing in the clearing alone.

Sango blinked for a moment before slowly picking up her little cat demon in her arms. Seeing the demon slayer bend over was too much for Miroku, and he took the opportunity to grope the woman's behind. A loud slap quickly filled the area, leaving a writhing Miroku on the ground and a very annoyed looking Sango walking back to the village alone.

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"Mom, I'm home!" Kagome cried out as she opened the front door.

"In the kitchen dear," The reply came from Mrs. Higurashi. She was making something over the stove when her daughter stepped into the kitchen. Smiling, she stopped and turned; wiping her hands on the little apron she wore. "So, how are your friends? Especially the one with the cute ears."

Kagome sighed, sitting down daintily and mumbling, "It's Inuyasha," under her breath before looking directly at her mother.

"They are all fine. Inuyasha and I just got into a fight before coming here, again. He still really likes depriving me of seeing my family. He can be such an insensitive jerk at times! Or most times actually…" She sighed.

"Maybe he likes you," Mrs. Higurashi offered with a smile only a mother could give. "Oh, there's another boy who wants my daughter all for himself!" She beamed with pride and made Kagome blush.

"Hardly. He wants me as a jewel detector. Sometimes I doubt he has more than a few emotions at all…" She trailed off. "And what do you mean by 'another' boy?"

Her mother didn't answer right away, but got Kagome a small glass of milk and a couple cookies. "Trying to hide it? Don't be naïve Kagome! Who's that charming young lad from you're school? Hokie? Hosheen… Horoko…"

"Hojo," Kagome offered, remembering him perfectly. He wasn't as smart as Inuyasha could be (which in most cases wasn't saying much, she figured) but plenty more kind. But again, Inuyasha had no interest in her other than having her as his own personal jewel shard detector.

Satisfied with her work, Mrs. Higurashi went into asking about how the last couple of weeks had been. Kagome answered her questions happily, but grew angry in any mention of Inuyasha.

Once finished, she excused herself saying that she wanted a nice, warm bath. Understanding perfectly, her mother didn't attempt to stall her. On the way to the bathroom she asked her grandfather what foolish disease she had come down with this time, and he hesitated in answering something that sounded like a rare fungus, but he didn't clarify.

_Again, _she thought, _a disease I'm never going to even be able to get until I'm fifty! I wonder why no one notices these things?_

She passed Souta in the hall on the way to the bathroom with her towels.

"Hey sis! How's the feudal time going for you?" He asked casually. Souta was obviously interested in the status of his hero.

Kagome smiled and said, "Everything's just fine, don't worry. Now go play more video games or something, I want to take a bath in peace," She explained, moving past him and into the bathroom.

Ten minutes later, Kagome slid into a warm bathtub of soapy water, allowing a sigh of happiness to escape her, finding bliss in the bubbles.

_What is with Inuyasha? I wonder why the guy is so mean. He doesn't care about me, just getting the Shikon Jewel and killing Naraku. That's important, but I have family! Why can't he understand that? I wonder what he's doing now. Maybe he's startling someone else._

Flashback 

_She was sitting by a small stream, having a small drink and a little time alone from her traveling group. Just about to get another bit of water, a red streak flashed by behind her, causing her to loose balance and fall forward into the water._

_"Inuyasha… what was that all about!" She exclaimed angrily, pulling from the water and turning to look at him. Inuyasha had stopped and was standing behind her._

_"Feh. It's not my fault you fell in the water, jumpy baka. I didn't do anything, I was just passing by. You're the one who fell forward like an idiot and-"_

_"SIT!"_

_He went plummeting into the ground, using a wide range of vocabulary as he growled into the dirt._

_"STUPID GIRL!"_

_"Sit, sit, sit, SIT!"_

End Flashback

"Egotistic maniac…" She muttered into the water, sinking below the surface for a moment. For the next half hour the girl thoroughly washed her jet-black hair and scrubbed every inch of her body, thanking everything there were baths nowadays.

Kagome stepped out after another fifteen minutes of lounging in the water, lost in thought about her adventures in Sengoku Jidai. She looked over to the slightly glowing pink jewel on the bathroom counter. The Shikon no Tama was close to being entirely complete, but chances were each of the shards remaining were under Naraku's control.

_Will Inuyasha still want to become a full-fledged demon by the time we get the rest of the shards?_

She sure hoped he wouldn't. At least, hoped he wouldn't become the mindless killing machine that he transformed into on rare occasions.

"Kagome, are you done with your bath? One of your friends is here to see you."

"All right mom," Kagome responded from the other side of the closed door. Carefully and quickly, she wrapped a towel around herself and fled to her room to get changed into some clothes before running hastily to the living room.

"Hey Kagome!" Eri said happily, leaping up from the couch when Kagome stepped into view. "I guess you were taking a bath like your brother said. It's good to see that your able to walk with that foot fungus and all."

She put on a very blank face, but her eye was twitching in irritation. "I don't have foot fungus. Jii-chan meant to say I had a bad cold."

Eri blinked. "Oh. Okay. Either way, its good to see you!"

"Same here," The girl said in a slightly distant voice. Even with one of her friends here, she couldn't stop thinking about the argument she had had with Inuyasha before leaping through the well.

Both friends shared a brief hug, Kagome being careful not to get Eri wet from her hair, which hung damp across her shoulders.

"I have some schoolwork for you and stuff somewhere in my bag… but on a better note, I think Hojo is going to ask you out on another date! I think I heard him and his friends talking about it. You'll say yes, right?" Eri's voice was tingling with excitement.

Another date? In an odd way she was tired of him asking her out on them.

"I might. It depends Eri, I may have something else to do." _Yeah, like stopping Inuyasha from killing Shippo._

"Kagome, that guy so totally loves you! Why don't you just accept it?"

At this point, Mrs. Higurashi stepped happily from the kitchen and said, "See Kagome? I told you! You have that one boy and this boy. I'm so proud!"

The girl in question was glaring at her mother, but remaining else wise very still. Was it necessary for her mother to say that?

"Mom! Stop it, please!"

"She's talking about that other guy you like, right? That 'two-timer' as you call him, right? Yeah, when are you going to fully introduce him to us?"

Inuyasha… her friends… trying to get them to know each other. That was a scary yet somehow funny thing to picture. He would never agree, and even if by some miracle he did, it would be too hard to keep him from letting something slip about the real reason she was always missing school.

"He's not a social person," Kagome said in thought.

"Still," Eri said persistently, "I want to meet him either way Kagome."

Shrugging, Eri turned around and reached into her school bag, pulling out a rather thick pile of papers and books. Her schoolwork…

"Yeah, we did a lot this time while you were gone. I wrote down everything you have to do on that piece of paper at the top of the pile so you won't get confused. I have to go now Kagome, but it was great seeing you. I'll tell Yuka and Ayumi you're feeling better. Maybe we can have a girl's day out soon? It's been a while." There was a note of begging in her voice. At this point, spending a day with her friends seemed just right.

"I'll do my best to make it happen," Kagome said firmly, sharing a smile with Eri.

From his place on the floor playing video games, Souta mumbled "Girls", under his breath but not taking his eyes off the screen, where he was beating the living daylights out of his fighting opponent.

After a few moments Eri left with a smile and left Kagome with all the work and a slight groan of distaste.

"Maybe you shouldn't hang out in the past so much if you don't like having to catch up on all your work, sis," Souta said, still mostly concentrated on the game.

"Inuyasha would kill me. He doesn't even like me coming back here as it is. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get some of this work done and then get back and explain to the group what's going on."

With no need for more words, Kagome left quickly for her room with the pile of papers and schoolbooks.

It was for the next couple of hours that she ended up hunched over the desk in her room, deciphering English, solving algebraic expressions, trying to understand some advanced study of DNA, and writing a rough draft of an essay on history.

By the time the couple of hours were up, Kagome wasn't even half way through the pile of work. By this time it had gotten to get slightly dark and all her brainpower made her exhausted.

"Maybe if I just take a little nap…"

BAM!

Kagome almost fell out of her seat in shock, her heart suddenly racing from the scare. Her eyes shot to her bedroom window in an instant and she grew angry all over again.

Inuyasha was banging on the closed glass a bit too hard. Fearing it might shatter, she rushed over and flung it open. Unfortunately for the hanyou, he hadn't expected the window to open so suddenly and ended up striking air and falling forward onto his face into Kagome's carpet with a growl.

"Wench, why the hell did you close the damn window?"

"Because it's my window Inuyasha!" She said angrily, stepping back and falling onto her bed as he stood up. "I can open and close it when I want; I thought it was a little bit chilly."

He laughed slightly, "Chilly. Right. It's perfectly fine, baka. Have you seen your family yet?" He asked sharply.

Kagome blinked and answered very slowly, "Yeeesss…"

"Good," Inuyasha said quickly, grabbing her wrist, "so you can come back with me now."

"No! Let go of me Inuyasha, let go! Now!" She was struggling against his grip and failing, still being dragged slowly towards the window. Sighing, she leaned forward and closed her teeth on Inuyasha's wrist.

He recalled his hand instantly, shocked that she actually had the nerve to bite him. Glaring at her he yelled, "Why did you bite me? You said you had to come back and see your family, you saw them, now come on. Stop wasting time in this stupid era, there are more important things to be done!"

It was her turn to glare angrily. If she hadn't been unsure if the force of a sit would break the floor or not, it would have happened right then and there. Instead, she settled for sitting stubbornly back on her bed with narrowed eyes and crossed arms.

"And I have things I need to do here too. I'm going to be here for a couple of days. I have friends besides you guys, and I need to spend time with them. Besides, one of my friends says this guy named Hojo wants to ask me on a date."

It was like a switch was flipped. Inuyasha started growling very low in his chest. "No Hobo is going to ask you out on one of your futuristic dates," He told her firmly, clenching his fists. She had once explained to him what a date was in her era, and he had hoped she had never gone on one of them.

"I'll go on a date with whoever I want to, Inuyasha. You or anyone else can't stop me. Now go back and wait for me like a good dog," She instructed, her temper rising ever so steadily.

"I'm not… a dog…" He said slowly, eyeing her.

"Dog, dog demon, half dog demon, it doesn't matter to me!" Kagome cried, fed up now. "Just go! I still have loads of school work to do because of all the time I spend with you guys."

Inuyasha blinked and said angrily, "You don't spend enough time if you keep coming back here."

"That's IT!" Kagome yelled.

Downstairs, Souta and Mrs. Higurashi were just starting to eat. They had heard the commotion and looked up just as Jii-chan entered the room. Soon all three were staring up at the ceiling in interest, all ignoring the food except for Souta- he had a few noodles hanging from his mouth. They all agreed that Inuyasha had definitely stopped by.

The half demon had drawn back a little at the teenager's fury, not sure what to do. Kagome moved first, standing and walking boldly up to him.

"Inuyasha?"

"What?" He asked a little cautiously, ears against his skull.

Summoning up all her strength, Kagome shoved her arms out into his chest and pushed him out of the window, yelling at the top of her lungs,

"SIT BOY!"

"YAAA!"

After a couple of seconds, Kagome looked out of the window. Inuyasha was lying sprawled out across the ground as usual after the command. Oddly, as Kagome noticed, a downstairs window was open and her mother, grandfather, and brother were also looking at him.

"Now go!" She screamed down at him as he was finally able to stand up. Grumbling things under his breath, Inuyasha brushed off his haori and glared up at the girl. How dare she!

"Feh… whatever. You better be back by two days or I'm coming to get you," He warned her, running quickly to the well house and disappearing, leaving the echo of a loud curse after him before returning to his won era. Kagome reddened from anger at what he had called back ('stupid baka of a bitch') but let it go. The nerve of some people! For now, though, she was just happy she had managed to push him outside before giving the command and that nothing broke inside her room.

_What a selfish jerk!_ She kept telling herself, stomping down the stairs to join her family for dinner.

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"What is her problem?"

"What is whose problem, Inuyasha?" Sango asked, coming forward from the foliage, hearing Inuyasha's return as he leapt from the well.

He glared at her for a moment. As if she didn't already know!

"And who else would you think it would be? Who could it even possibly be you idiot?" Inuyasha growled at her. Sango grinned as he sat down in dignity, back against the edge of the well.

"Give her some time. Sure, I want her back as much as the next person, but she has a family. They probably miss her after all the time she spends away from them.

His ears twitched and he turned to look at the demon slayer for a second or so. He muttered something incoherent under his breath before looking back the other way.

"It doesn't matter. She's got more important stuff to do here."

Sango sighed, shifting the weapon across her back. Maybe it was best to just leave him be like usual. Blinking once, she turned and walked off as smoothly as she had came, leaving Inuyasha and his thoughts in peace.

Who was this Hobo guy she had mentioned? Was he safe for her to be around? Given his nature, he was, of course, very protective over Kagome. Like Sango and Miroku had somewhat assumed, they believed the two did indeed secretly love each other, and Inuyasha did not want Kagome hanging around some other guy.

The night passed by rather slowly, the two golden eyes never shutting for longer than a blink. Luckily, no demon came to attack him, no villagers came to question him, and Miroku, Sango, and Shippo stayed away from him. He was positive Shippo would have come and annoyed him if he had his way, but the monk and slayer had probably restrained him.

The next day, he stood slowly at about them time he probably would have woken up, had he actually slept. Quickly, he made his way back to the village, even if he only meant it to get food before returning to the well. Inuyasha was just waiting for two days to be up so he could go back to her time and drag her back. This time he had warned her, after all. She couldn't say it was unfair.

Though planning to stay only for the food, Miroku pulled him aside before he could leave.

"Inuyasha, do you really plan to just sit by the well all day and all tomorrow?"

"Yeah, what's wrong with that? You got a problem with it?"

Miroku blinked and said in a measured voice, "Yes and no. I know that you must be waiting for Kagome…"

"No duh, monk. Even brat boy over there could figure that out! You think you're all smart all of a sudden? Cause I don't."

The half awake and half asleep kitsune looked up at being called 'brat boy'. Normally he would have leapt at the hanyou's head, but he was still too tired. Giving up a defeated yawn, he decided to let Miroku handle this one.

"Kagome will come back when she is ready. If you pester her further, you will probably be looking down a long and painful road of sits."

Inuyasha snorted and growled, "I'm used to it by now."

This caused the monk to raise an eyebrow and comment, "And I wonder why. Fine. You may go wait for her, but don't complain when you crash face first into the ground again. And Again. And again."

"I wasn't asking for your permission, you idiot. I don't need anyone's permission to do anything. Feh, you stupid monk. Get outa my way!" Inuyasha pushed Miroku roughly aside and leapt from the hut, speeding back to the well.

And for the rest of that day and night, he again sat alone by the well with his mind. Some part of it did say Miroku was right, and he didn't want to be sat to death. Another part said it didn't matter, and he listened to that part. He'd never been one to listen to logic as it was.

That night, however, he did allow himself to catch some sleep. He wanted to be wide-awake when Kagome got back so that he could have full energy to show off full anger.

"Stupid wench…" He muttered hazily, eyes shutting and eventually allowing sleep to take over him.


	2. Kinenrosu

**Disclaimer- Inuyashanot owned by me**

_Chapter Two, Kinenrosu_

Under the influence of the sun, Kagome stirred and yawned, stretching out her arms and sitting slowly up in her bed. She glanced out her window and smiled. Eri had been right about Hojo.

Early the following morning, no more than an hour or two after she had finished her breakfast, Hojo had come by their house to check on her. The girl remembered the time vividly.

Flashback

"_Um, hello Mrs. Higurashi. Is Kagome home?"_

_Kagome had been doing work at a table and looked up when she heard the familiar voice at the door. For a moment or so she couldn't place it, having her mind stuck between math and language arts, but realized it was Hojo._

_"Yes she is. Come in, she's just catching up on some schoolwork Hojo," Her mother said proudly, standing aside and letting him in._

_As he smiled and approached Kagome, even Souta looked up from the floor, where he was drawing a picture of something or other. He laughed, noticing the looked on his sister's face. His mother shot him an odd look and he fell silent, dying from laughter in his mind._

_Looking up with a slight blush, Kagome dropped the pen and used her feet to push out a chair for Hojo to sit in, but not before giving her mom a warning look. _

"_Hey Kagome," He said kindly._

"_Hi Hojo. What are you doing here?" She had asked, genuinely curious._

"_Um, well," Hojo started, a little bit unsure, "I was wondering if maybe you wanted to go out sometime, like tomorrow, if you weren't feeling too bad?" He had been hopeful when he spoke, yet still very sincere._

_She thought. It was the previous night Inuyasha had said two days… this was day one, so what was wrong with tomorrow? He never said she had to come back early. She could go back afterwards. Wait, why was she even thinking what Inuyasha said mattered about anything? He had no say in her life. _

_Determinedly, she nodded with a smile. "Sure. That sounds like fun," Kagome replied, causing Hojo to smile even more._

"_That's good. What would you think about maybe a walk around the park and either lunch or dinner?" Kagome enjoyed the thought of a walk around the park. _

"_Sure. Why not dinner? You always take me out for lunch," She offered innocently. Her true goal was to have a reason to stay longer. _

"_Great. Do… you want me to come and get you around seven then, maybe?" Hojo asked. Kagome shrugged slightly before nodding a yes, giving the boy a very victorious look. "So, I'll see you then. Tomorrow, seven, walk and dinner. Thanks Kagome."_

"_No, thank you Hojo. It's been a while since I've been out," the girl lied, but very well. He only smiled more sincerely and stood, taking his leave as Mrs. Higurashi opened the door._

_There was a silence for a couple minutes after he left, during which time everyone in the room stared at the door. Souta broke the tranquility._

"_Kagome's going on a date! What do you think Inuyasha's going to do? We all heard him telling you he wanted you back in Feudal Japan in a couple days."_

_Kagome turned and glared at him._

"_It's not like he owns me. I can do what I want when I want, and I'll just go back after I get home. It's fine," Kagome persisted, sighing and getting back to work._

End Flashback

That's right, she had a date today, seven o'clock. She was not going to let herself mess this up. No stupid lies about sicknesses, no expeditions with Inuyasha, just her, Tokyo, and Hojo.

Getting up with a second yawn, Kagome rushed over to her drawer. Being a person who favored skirts, she quickly was able to find a black one, perhaps six or seven inches longer than her school uniform skirt. She also managed to locate a somewhat tight-fitting dark blue long sleeved shirt that was neither too cold nor too warm. She got dressed quickly and made her bed, moving out of her room and to the bathroom to brush her teeth.

After spending a few minutes on teeth and a few more on her hair, Kagome was pleased with how she looked for the day. Happy, she left the bathroom and headed for the kitchen, where Souta was already eating a bowl of cereal.

"Good morning Souta. How did you sleep?"

Souta looked up and blinked, swallowing the food he had been chewing and blinking again. "You're just happy you're going to be all making out tonight, aren't you?" He asked 'innocently', eyeing his sister carefully.

"Souta!" Kagome reddened both from anger and embarrassment. "Of course not! We are just going to be going for a walk and dinner, and then I'm going back with Inuyasha and them. It's nothing big."

"Yeah," He taunted, starting to spoon up more cereal, "Nothing big but a date. You are never this happy when you wake up, so don't try and kid yourself Kagome. I saw your look yesterday, and so did mom. And P.S, I slept fine. Apparently you did too." Purposefully, he finished rapidly and dropped the bowl in the sink, leaving the room so Kagome was alone.

She sighed. Stupid little brother… what did he know? She was just going out for dinner and a walk, like she had said. On the other hand, she couldn't deny she was acting abnormally happy.

"Good morning, Kagome. Souta says you're in a good mood." Her mother's voice preceded the actual person, and a moment later Mrs. Higurashi entered the kitchen to make some eggs. Souta, even though he already had had a small bowl of cereal, would likely still have some eggs if offered.

"Morning mom. And why shouldn't I be happy? I'm home, aren't I? No demon tailing me, or Inuyasha telling me what I can and cannot do. I love being home."

From then until the end of breakfast, not much was said on the matter of Kagome, Inuyasha, or Hojo. In fact, Kagome was still so preoccupied with missing schoolwork that she didn't have much time to talk about anything. She knew she could get Souta to take her work to school but she herself would again probably not be back for a while.

It was around three that a very tired looking Kagome finally gave up the effort, having made good headway. At this point, there was only about a sixth of the original work left to complete, and she was positive she'd be able to get it done.

Glancing at the clock that was ticking ominously from the wall, she looked around her bedroom. Four hours until Hojo came… that was enough time to finish the work, take a short break now, and get tidied up before he stopped by. Definitely enough.

Kagome went to join her brother in watching T.V. for a half hour. It was something on making cartoons or other animated things, which Souta seemed very interested in, but not so much for Kagome. She actually preferred to just do work, and went off to finish hers for the remainder of the time.

About twenty minutes before seven, Kagome started to rush. She made sure her breath didn't smell, her hair was combed, and the clothes she had on were still clean.

"Dear, calm down," Her mother had said. They had asked for Jii-chan's opinion on the matter, but he had just said something that sounded oddly like 'never in my day did people act like this' and then something or other about demons and whatnot. Mother and daughter had shared a worried glance and went about their businesses.

Five minutes after seven, Kagome was sitting nervously on her couch, wondering where Hojo was. She knew she couldn't risk not making it back to Sengoku Jidai before Inuyasha came exploding through the well looking for her. Rather… why hadn't he come already?

A knock at the door!

"Good luck sis," Souta told her.

"Where is she going?" Jii-chan asked, staring at his granddaughter and causing Souta to sigh.

"Grandpa…"

Ignoring her clueless grandfather and the explaining Souta, Kagome answered the door. She was relieved, somewhat, that her mom wasn't in the room.

"Hey Kagome. Are you ready to go?" Hojo asked, presenting her with a small collection of flowers. Kagome smiled and took them, hurrying off to put them in a cup of water and returning a moment later.

"Yes, I'm ready to go. Thanks for the flowers." Kagome said graciously, closing the door behind her just as Mrs. Higurashi walked into the room. The pair departed, heading first for a walk in the park.

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"LET…. ME… GO!"

"That idiot… how long are you going to keep him in there, Kaede?" Shippo asked, eyeing a building along with about twenty other people. It was trembling as if it was undergoing an earthquake… or at least a very angry hanyou.

Kaede looked at it and smiled wearily. The old woman had used a sutra to keep Inuyasha from getting out and rushing off to get Kagome very early on that day. As expected, he had not stopped attempting to fight his way out since then. Plenty of villagers had come to stare at the quivering building, wondering what was going on.

"I plan I should release Inuyasha come nightfall. Ye would not like seeing him go after young Kagome before then, would ye?" She asked the kitsune earnestly. Though it was directed at him, Sango and Miroku also nodded.

"But when you let him leave, you'll make sure I'm far away right? I don't wanna be killed," Shippo squeaked, watching the building carefully as Inuyasha roared out again and apparently had rammed into the door.

"If ye wish," Kaede said simply turning back to making a remedy for a sick child in the village.

Some three hours later, nearing darkness, Kaede had come back to the building.

"You're gonna let him out now then?"

Smiling at the worried kitsune, Kaede nodded, moving slowly up to where she had placed the restraining sutra. It was all he needed to hear. In one instant, Shippo had run off to get a safe distance from the building.

Dramatically (if only for fun), Kaede reached towards the sutra in a drawled out manner and then, after a few seconds of silence, she tore the thing off.

A couple seconds later, there was a rumbling from inside the now still structure, and some people stood back.

"OLD HAG!" Inuyasha roared, jumping straight up from the middle of the building and breaking the ceiling easily, causing the building itself to falter and some of the spectators to screech in surprise and fright.

"Have ye not heard of a thing called a door?" The elderly lady asked calmly, watching Inuyasha casually.

Inuyasha glared at her and tensed one finger threateningly. When the old lady still refused to falter, he growled and leapt off away from the village and towards the well. It was far too late, and Kagome should have been back a long time ago!

He didn't even hesitate in throwing himself over the well and paid no attention to the lights during the time shift. Instantly he leapt out and bolted to Kagome's house, leaving the well house in his wake.

The girl's window was open, so he took that route in through the house.

"Stupid girl… she's not even in her room," He breathed angrily under his breath, perched on the windowsill carelessly and looking around the dark and deserted room. Growling, Inuyasha leapt down softly onto the carpet and stormed out of the room to find the other people.

He had been heading towards the living room when he spotted a cup of flowers on a small table. They smelled of both Kagome and someone else… that one boy he'd seen before. That Hobo person… and the growl in his throat increased.

"Inuyasha, what are you doing here?" Souta said happily, spotting the half-demon almost instantly and running over to him. Inuyasha turned to look at the enthusiastic boy, replying in a monotone barely over a second after Souta had stopped speaking, "Where is Kagome?"

Souta blinked and said slowly, "She went out with a guy named Hojo on a date. She told us she'd told you."

_I thought she was kidding! _He exclaimed in his head. Inuyasha didn't answer Souta, but rather cracked his knuckles angrily. Just wait till she got back…

She had actually gone out on that date thing? Inuyasha had expected maybe she might have lied to get him angry and go out with those friends she was always talking about, but not that Hobo guy! He'd rather her go somewhere with any guy but him. How could she do this to him?

"That idiot…" he mumbled, standing stone still and glaring at the flowers.

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"Eri told me you're grandfather had a mix up and you didn't have that rare fungus; only had a bad cold. That's been going around then, hasn't it Kagome?"

Kagome had been staring dully at her plate, lost in deep thought. She snapped back to reality when she heard someone saying her name and smiled, trying to both cover up and apologize for her distractedness at the exact same time. Hojo, however, didn't seem to mind.

"Oh, yes, I suppose it has. I don't know why my grandfather made such a silly mistake, but I forgive him I guess. It's not entirely his fault. Fungus and cold… for him its reasonable to mix the two up," She said distractedly, mind wandering to Inuyasha yet again. She had a very strong feeling that he was going to be angry with her when she got back…

"I guess. Let's go," Hojo offered, having paid their bill already. Kagome smiled softly, getting up and following him from the restaurant for another walk home through the park. This time their walk was mostly in the dark, and it was a major shift from the first one, but welcome nonetheless.

The two went slowly down the park path for a little while in silence, enjoying the cool and crisp night air, but Hojo tried a bit at conversation.

"So… have you caught up on all the schoolwork you've missed?"

Kagome nodded happily. "Yeah, I finished the last part of it right before you got to my house. I just can't wait to get to school tomorrow," She lied in a very believing tone. That way, it would seem she was eager to go to school, not have a fun weekend then blow it off.

"You seem fine. I don't think anything could catch you during the night, right?" He asked hopefully. Looking once again falsely positive, Kagome smiled and nodded to him, pretending it was impossible for anything of the sort to happen.

"Watch out!"

For the split second she had taken her eyes off of the path, a person on a bike sped by, causing Kagome to jump (quite literally) to Hojo.

She blushed effusively when she noticed their close contact, but recognized something odd in Hojo's eyes… she'd seen it in Inuyasha's own eyes a few times before. He seemed to lean into her a bit, and she widened her eyes with shock when she realized he was trying to kiss her!

Taking a step back, Kagome looked a little to the side, still blushing greatly. Hojo looked a little bit hurt, but smiled weakly, continuing to walk on towards her house. This time, they remained silent the rest of the way.

When at last they finally reached her house, their farewells were… odd, to say the least. Different and not happy, nothing like one would expect. Kagome sighed as Hojo walked away and turned to open the door.

The door was maybe half an inch open when someone from the other side grabbed it and latterly flung it open and away from her grasp, grasping her arm and pulling her forward in a flash and wall of red.

Kagome would have screamed, and she did, but the person muffled her. Realizing it was Inuyasha she calmed down a little, but started getting very angry internally. This was no way to greet someone!

"What were you doing with that guy, Kagome?" An irritated hanyou demanded, setting Kagome straight. Jii-chan was being held back by Souta, and once again Mrs. Higurashi doing something else somewhere else.

Recovering her dignity and stature, Kagome didn't answer at once. She straightened her now ruffled skirt and shirt, making them lie smooth again before looking up to meet his eyes. What emotion were they showing now? Worry? Anger? She couldn't quite tell and sighed, cocking her head slightly and blinking.

"None of your concern. We were just taking a walk together Inuyasha, calm down. Now you said I had two days to stay here if I recall, right? And it hasn't been more than the set two days until midnight comes around. Just give me a couple minutes and I'll get ready to go."

"Whatever, but you're still… wait, what?"

His expression was priceless. Kagome didn't dare to laugh out loud to anger him though; only inwardly. The normally dominant Inuyasha had gone from looking high and mighty to confused and unsure. She smiled, pleased with herself and the dumbstruck hanyou before her.

"That's right, I'm not going to put up a fight about coming back. Now it's your turn to hurry up," She instructed, running off to get her bag.

All three men left in the room stared after her. Souta looked almost as confused as Inuyasha, and Jii-chan was looking Inuyasha over angrily, annoyed at how he had handled his granddaughter. Inuyasha twitched his ears, hearing a pair of footsteps on the stairs less then three minutes after Kagome had departed.

Not long after detecting the noise, Kagome reappeared with a full backpack. Oddly, he didn't even protest when she passed by without talking to him or anyone into the kitchen. He could hear her rummaging through the cupboards. He could only hope she was gathering up ramen. Bored, Inuyasha leapt onto the back of the couch and sat gracefully on that, staring at the doorway to the kitchen, waiting for Kagome to be finished.

"Done!" A victorious voice sounded, echoing through the house.

"Done with what?" Her mother's voice came curiously. She was wondering what all the noise had been about. Mrs. Higurashi knew Inuyasha was here, but didn't want to assume things. "So you are leaving again?"

Kagome pulled out of the kitchen and smiled, throwing her backup over her shoulder. "Yeah. Can you please remind grandpa to give me a regular sickness? Like a high fever or something people my age can actually get?" She pleaded withy both voice and eyes. Her mother smiled.

"Of course. I don't want to hold you up though. Have a good time honey," Mrs. Higurashi said firmly, hugging her daughter before Kagome walked over to Inuyasha.

"I… you… wench… FEH!" He said at last. Kagome smiled as he looked away, still trying to act like he was in control of the situation.

"Lead the way then," Kagome offered.

He eyed her over and blinked. In one fluid movement he had leapt from his place on the back of the couch and dashed to and jumped out of the nearest open window. Sighing again at his ways, Kagome quickly found her way out of the back door and rushed to the shrine, where Inuyasha was already waiting for her.

"Come on wench," He said in a voice slightly more soft than normal, though that really wasn't saying much at all. Grabbing her arm, the both of them leapt down into the well, welcoming the lights emitted as they traveled through time, landing daintily on the other side. Still grasping Kagome's arm, Inuyasha leapt up from the well, pulling her along and setting her down when they stood.

"Inuyasha?"

"Yeah? What do you want?" He asked rather snappily, glancing over at her.

She smiled and said softly, "Thanks." Her comment was barely audible but still able to be heard by him and accompanied by a picked up wind. He flicked one of his ears but made no other comment.

"Is that a demon already?" He said suddenly, looking around. He had definitely caught wind of something. It smelled like a demon, but no ordinary one. It angered him when he realized that when it seemed it wasn't ordinary, it wasn't due to a matter of strengths and thus not a Jewel Shard, but… something he couldn't understand.

"I don't see the glow of the jewel anywhere…" Kagome muttered a little bit confused, drawing a little bit closer to Inuyasha. In an instant he had drawn Tetsusaiga and held it at the ready. The odd smell seemed to come from all around, so he didn't know where to expect an attack if there was to be one at all.

"What's that?" Kagome asked in a whisper.

Both of their pairs of eyes closely followed a trail of emerald, pink, and white sparks that seemed to come from nowhere. It was growing closer to the edge of the trees every moment, and Inuyasha brandished his blade at it, ready for anything to protect Kagome, who currently had come even closer than before to him.

"_Do not be alarmed…_" A misty voice came. Kagome's heart skipped a beat. It sounded like a voice you'd find in a dream. Inuyasha tightened his grip on Tetsusaiga but didn't move to attack yet.

The trail of sparks at last exited the trees and entered the clearing with the two others. In a shimmering glow of white light, an orb appeared from nowhere and expanded much like a star undergoing nova. When it extended large enough it broke into white shatters of glass that disintegrated before they met the grass.

"Who the hell are you?" Inuyasha demanded, still not being able to see, as the white light hadn't quite dyed down yet. When it did, Kagome gasped.

The creature before them seemed too… innocent and beautiful to be a malcontented demon. It had large light blue and yellow wings almost like a butterfly or fairy might, which emitted the sparks they had originally seen. It had the body of a young woman with long, perfect golden hair and albino-white skin. She had icy blue eyes with black specks and soft features, clothed in a long, flowing blue and white silk dress. Her ears were slightly pointed and had hair decorated with a dark brown dust to offset the gold color wrapped behind them. Her whole body seemed to have a white aura that protruded perhaps half a foot.

"_I am Kinenrosu. You two are Inuyasha and Kagome, I do believe…_"

"And what do you plan to make of it?" Inuyasha threatened, spinning his blade masterfully. Kagome, however, remained silent. She was too awed by the beauty of what floated before them.

Kinenrosu smiled softly to reveal bleached white teeth, each ending in a soft point and met together like a perfectly carved puzzle. With a tremendous beat of her wings, the sparks (or what they realized was dust) was sent spiraling forward around them but disappeared when the wings drew back.

"_Whatever I wish. I am like all beings; I cannot pass up fun. Do you know what I am capable of, you two?_"

Kagome dully shook her head, now clinging onto Inuyasha's haori with slightly whitened hands. Inuyasha growled, baring his fangs, but also an apparent answer of 'no'.

With a smile, Kinenrosu explained, "_Allow me to demonstrate…_" As she said this, she held out a hand lazily (which it could be noted had long blue nails) and pointed a finger at Kagome, causing Inuyasha to pull her even closer and stand directly in front of her. Kinenrosu just sighed and pointed upwards towards the sky. Her eyes seemed to light up and a very slender white something looking suspiciously like a lightening bolt was extracted from the sky and fell upon Kagome for a moment in which she blinked and looked around curiously.

"Where am I?" She asked, freezing when she saw the creature that was Kinenrosu. The thing in question reclaimed her finger and Kagome blinked again, muttering, "Whoa… that felt weird…"

Her half demon protector growled even more, but wasn't entirely positive what had just happened.

"_Don't tell me you still do not know? Oh well…you will probably learn eventually. I must be taking my leave, you two. But not before…_" She looked at both of them and faced both palms down to the ground, and her eyes seemed to glow once more.

Inuyasha pushed Kagome back some as a bright light filled the ground beneath Kinenrosu that extended forward and stopped when reaching the ground that the pair stood on.

"Coward! Come over here and fight," Inuyasha demanded, irritated and angry. He only caused the demon to smile.

"_But I do not wish to fight… farewell!_"

Both Kagome and Inuyasha shielded their eyes as Kinenrosu gave another gigantic wing beat and showering them in the glittery, shining dust before being engulfed in the sphere of before and disappearing without a trace. Both seemed to falter for a second and the Tetsusaiga transformed back.

"How very odd…" Kagome muttered, rubbing her forehead as she felt a headache coming on. In an even worse coincidence, Inuyasha did the same.

"You are in no shape to travel," He said kind of distantly, as if under the impression they had just gotten out of a great fight with someone like Sesshomaru. Kagome did not protest when he came and told her to sit down, sitting next to her.

A chill wind picked up and caused Kagome to shiver and say in an undertone, "Inuyasha… it's cold…"

He looked over to her with eyes heavy from false exhaustion. Kinenrosu only needed to alter his recollection enough to have him forget the reason of them being out there and the events involving her.

"Come on…" He muttered, wrapping his arm around her and drawing her up next to him. She rested her head on his shoulder, already being overtaken with slumber. Inuyasha listened as her breathing and heartbeat lowered and steadied and smiled softly, taking in Kagome's scent in a state of bliss. He, too, closed his eyes and fell asleep next to her.

From somewhere above them, a white shimmer in the sky glowed down in a taunting fashion.

"_Oh, this game should be rather interesting indeed…_" Kinenrosu said softly. With a snap of the finger, her entire form shattered into the dust that fell from her wings and she was carried over the wind, leaving nothing but a trace of laughter in the air to remind any being of her presence.


	3. The Monk, the Slayer, and the Hanyou

**Disclaimer- Of all the things money can buy… It has yet to be able to buy me Inuyasha, so he is not mine…**

_

Chapter Three, The Monk, the Slayer, and the Hanyou

_

Rubbing the tiredness from her eyes, Kagome yawned very slightly and blinked in confusion. There was something wrong here…

It was far too bright out, she noted first. Once she got over the initial shock of realizing she wasn't in her house or any house in that case, but instead somewhere within a forest she did not recognize, Kagome noticed someone's arm wrapped protectively around her waist.

She remained silent for a second, using her eyes to trace the arm to its owner. It belonged to the strangest figure she had ever seen before in her life, and she was propped against it. It was some guy she was positive she did not know with red old fashioned clothes, very long white hair, and… oh my, were those dog ears on his head? What was she doing sleeping in the middle of nowhere with this strange… strange thing!

"Kidnapper! Monster!" Kagome screamed, pushing herself back from the figure and flinching as the person jumped.

"Do you have to scream so goddamn loud?"

Kagome gasped as golden eyes shot open flawlessly and fell upon her, his ears twitching very slightly as he spoke. Right now they were mostly laid flat against his skull from the sudden loud noise.

"W-w-who a-are y-you?" She asked in a shaky and quiet voice, which no human would have been able to hear. "What are y-you?"

The stranger blinked and again flicked his ears -cute, but resistible for now- before standing up and beginning to walk towards her.

"St-stay away you… you… whatever you are!" Kagome threatened weakly, looking away from the sword the person carried at their waist. It was obvious she had no means of defense and knew it, and she wondered inwardly why she was even bluffing if it was so apparent.

"What the hell is wrong with you? Don't your remember last night?" He questioned oddly, somehow remembering a battle of some sort. Why didn't Kagome remember that?

"L-last night?" She squeaked rather pathetically as the guy stopped about six feet from her slightly shivering form. "Oh no!" Kagome gasped, grabbing at her chest, "We didn't… you… rapist!" She wailed.

He seemed to go rigid and just stared at her before snapping, "No! What would ever give you that idea?" Though his face was slightly red, whether from anger or embarrassment was unknown. "Kagome…"

"How do you know my name? And who and what are you?" She repeated, eyeing the adorable ears atop the stranger's head with desire.

"You just can't make this easy, can you wench?" He quite literally growled, causing Kagome to gasp at his fangs. She seemed to be on the verge of tears at this point and fell forward.

"Don't kill me, monster!" she pleaded, almost groveling now. Kagome was only perhaps a foot from the red clad person. He crouched slowly, bring his face dangerously close to hers and pulling her head up with a hand then whispered, "Baka… you can't seriously tell me you forgot I'm a half demon, can you?" His tone wasn't regular, but it was obvious he was being truthful.

"Half…. Half…" Kagome saw the claws on the hand that had lifted her head. The next noise heard was a slap so loud it rivaled anything Sango had presented to Miroku. The hanyou fell back a couple feet from the girl who had smacked him across the face and gave her widened eyes.

"What the hell was that for!" He shouted angrily.

"I've been kidnapped by a half-demon!" Kagome wailed pitifully. After a couple of seconds of trying to calm herself down, she again insisted, "What's your name and how do you know mine?"

"It's Inuyasha, you idiot," Inuyasha snapped at her, sitting down angrily where he was. He put his hands in their opposite sleeves. Kagome had this really odd feeling that she had seen that somewhere before now, but couldn't recall. "As for your stupid name, I know it because you told it to me. A long time ago," he added distastefully and looking the other way.

She had mustered up enough courage to sit but a couple of feet from him. Inuyasha turned his head and eyed her for a moment (which caused Kagome to stop moving and breathing in fright) then looked the other way again.

"Feh. You know, you really should be thanking me for…" Inuyasha stopped dead in his tracks and put on a blank face with wide eyes.

"Are these real?" Kagome asked. She was on her knees behind him and pulling both of his ears gently between thumb and index finger. "They sure feel real…" She trailed off, stroking them with her thumbs but still tugging at them.

A low growl grew in his chest, both enjoying and hating what she was doing to him. Inuyasha flicked both ears, causing her to shriek and let go, falling back.

"It's 'cause they are real, wench!" He threatened, turning to look at her but covering his now flattened ears with his hands protectively. "What happened to you Kagome? You act like you never even met me."

Kagome blushed a little bit, realizing she had fallen on her back and that the Inuyasha thing was leaning slightly over her. She hastened to sit up straight and snapped, "I never did meet you, kidnapper."

"I didn't kidnap you, you came by yourself, stupid. It's not like I'm gonna hurt you," He explained, reaching a clawed hand toward her.

"DON'T TOUCH ME!" Kagome screamed, shoving Inuyasha's hand out of the way but cutting herself in the process. "Ow!"

Inuyasha looked her over carefully but sighed, snatching the slightly bleeding hand away from Kagome's chest, ignoring her gasp. She shivered at the contact, feeling how gently he had taken her hand and at the brush of claws against her skin. Frighteningly, she knew this Inuyasha person could easily kill her if he wanted, and she wondered why it was he didn't.

"See, this is why you don't get me angry. Idiot, being on my side just isn't good enough for you so you go and cut yourself. Is this some master plan to get us into another argument so you can 'sit' me?" Inuyasha growled, dropping her hand.

She blinked and cocked her head a little. "Side? Argument? Si-!" Kagome was cut off mid-word and screamed. Inuyasha had leapt forward, shoving his hand over her mouth.

"What are you trying to do? I didn't do anything that time."

"Pervert!" Kagome yelled, pushing him off of her. Still afraid he might kill or rape her, she asked shakily, "What's the big idea? All I did was start saying sit."

A resounding crash filled the air as the half demon struck the ground face first. Mumbles of muttered rude remarks streamed from the small crater, which Kagome crawled over to cautiously.

"What… what happened? Did you trip?" She inquired innocently, inching back when Inuyasha was released from the subjugation spell.

"So you honestly want to tell me you forgot all of the time that you've spent here? All of it?" He asked in the calmest voice he could manage… though, it still wasn't calm at all. His focus did not waver from her once.

She blinked twice and said slowly, "I don't know where 'here' even is, how you really know me, or what's going on. I have one thing to say, and that's you just better not kill me or rape me."

There was an awkward moment of silence and Inuyasha lost his composure. The wind picked up a little, as if edging one of them to say something quicker, and died down when Inuyasha gave his ear a twitch.

"I don't want to kill you!" He yelled at her, flexing his fingers and claws in an agitated manner. Kagome squeaked a little and drew back, noticing what he had left out. Eventually, when he did too, Inuyasha grew slightly red and hastily added, "And I don't want to rape you either."

There was a second silence in which Inuyasha approached the frozen girl and muttered, "You're coming with me."

"Where?" She cried, not believing a word of him. She was not going to let this complete stranger have his way with her.

"To Kaede's, so she can tell me what's wrong with you, " he said seriously, teeth clenched and fangs bared. When he reached her he turned and instructed, "Get on now."

As if she was just going to hop on this strange guys back. "Yeah, right. I'm not going anywhere with you, you sicko. Yahh!" Kagome screamed as Inuyasha grabbed her arm roughly. She crashed into him with a horrible blush that was almost as bad as Inuyasha's haori. In a second he had grabbed her under the knees and back, drowning out the worst of her cries of protest by flattening his ears as best he could. Kagome only yelled louder at the speed Inuyasha ran at.

"Shut up!" He demanded, holding her a bit closer. If she didn't be quiet, she'd attract every demon in the area! Luckily they weren't that far from the village to begin with, but the sight of the feudal civilization caused Kagome to shriek worse than ever.

Some villagers looked up from their work at all the ruckus, confused at why Lady Kagome was screaming. Surely Inuyasha had not turned on them? Then, at last, the half demon and miko reincarnation he carried disappeared into Kaede's hut.

"Child, what frightens ye?" The old lady asked, not looking up from treating one of Sango's wounds.

"This creep!" Kagome exclaimed. She didn't recognize the three people, kitsune, or very odd little cat but she preferred them to her half demon 'kidnapper'. Hitting him again across the face, Kagome was dropped and ran forward to the elder woman.

Kaede glanced between the two of them. " 'Tis only Inuyasha. Has he done some act of impurity?" She asked curiously, wondering if the pair had admitted their feelings.

"What are you getting at, ya old hag?" He said irately, but Kagome spoke up.

"He kidnapped me! He says he's a half demon, so… so kill him! Shoot him! Do something to him before he hurts me." She begged, backing up into the monk. Bad move.

"EEEEEK!" Kagome yelled loudly. Had he just groped her? What was wrong with these people!

Inuyasha ran forward and she fell into him, ignoring who exactly she had found comfort with as he spoke, "Can't you see she's messed up in the head, Miroku? She's not thinking right."

"Who, me?" Kagome said hotly, looking up at Inuyasha and blinking as he looked down to meet her gaze. "At least I don't have freakily fuzzy dog ears, you kidnapping freak!" Entirely ignoring her own comment, Kagome smiled and shot her hands up, latching onto Inuyasha ears for a second time and pulling them.

"What the… will you knock it off with the ears Kagome?" He shouted, pushing Kagome away from him. Unfortunately, she hadn't let go of the furry appendages and he tripped over himself. Sango laughed happily and even Kaede chuckled softly at the two.

"Kagome, perhaps ye should allow Inuyasha his ears back."

Right now, Inuyasha had fallen forward much like he would if he had been sat, and Kagome had jumped onto his back. She was petting one ear and tugging on the other like a carefree young girl.

"No, I could just sit and- eep!" She grabbed both ears tightly like horse reins, as the boy she was sitting on was forced deeper into the ground. "What is its with me saying 'sit'?" Her grasp became tighter still on the poor hanyou's ears as she hit him with a second enchantment.

"STOP SAYING SIT!" Inuyasha bellowed into the ground. He had almost lost the feeling in his ears thanks to her terrified clutches. Shippo was watching wide eyed with Sango, Miroku had his own eyes closed at this point, and Kaede was in all very interested with the predicament. "AND LET GO OF MY EARS! NOW!" His whole body was twitching with anger and the command effect was beginning to loosen up.

"NO! They are cute!" Kagome protested, getting off of him and letting the poor ears go for a moment. Inuyasha was about to stand up but Kagome frowned and he growled at it.

"SIT!"

"That's gotta hurt," Shippo commented.

"What is wrong with Kagome, Kaede?" Sango asked, shooting her friend a worried glance. The girl in question was kneeling next to Inuyasha's head and rubbing her face against his left ear, despite the fact he was twitching it in furiously. In fact, Kagome like it even more since it was flicking.

Kaede sighed and explained, "Apparently she does not remember us. I feel a tad bit sorry for Inuyasha though… perhaps more so than for young Kagome," She said, looking the two over. Now Kagome had resumed tugging at both ears softly. Everyone in the hut nodded in agreement, of course, with the exception of Inuyasha and Kagome.

Though threatening her with a range of vocabulary that was colorful, to say the least, Inuyasha could not manage to get Kagome to stop. He knew it was going to be a long night…

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Inuyasha sat against the wall of Kaede's hut, watching Kagome sleep. His ears were drooped; exhausted from all the fondling Kagome had done to them. He himself was almost entirely in slight pain due to all the sits she had used on him to be able to play with his ears in the first place.

It had been… interesting trying to explain to Kagome about the Feudal Era and their quest for the Sacred Jewel of Four Souls.

Flashback

"So… How do I know all you people again?" Kagome had asked. Inuyasha was still sitting next to her with a very sour expression plastered on his face. She was still gently patting his left ear; folding it down, letting it straighten, pressing it flat, allowing it up. She threatened to sit him again if he didn't allow it, so he had given into her… grumpily.

"All six of us are a group that's looking for all the fragments of the Shikon no Tama. We are trying to defeat a massive evil called Naraku," Miroku explained. When he finished Sango slapped him, the reason apparent as he reclaimed a hand from somewhere behind her.

"Naraku, Jewel of Four Souls… got it. I think… and this is all… in the past, right? It's why you all dress weird?"

"Us dress weird?" Inuyasha couldn't help but interrupt. "You're the one who walks around with the 'show-off-everything-I-have' outfit from your era, wench. As if you don't dress as _weird _as we do, or whatever the hell you want to call it."

"Excuse me?"

"Feh. Hey, what was that for?" he exclaimed, glaring at her. She had abruptly pulled his ear extremely hard. Inuyasha could deal with the petting and rubbing, because it secretly felt very enjoyable (and he was thankful for being able to contain the growls of satisfaction), but not the pulling.

Kagome said exasperatedly, "Just stop calling me 'wench', okay? What did I do to deserve that? As far as I'm concerned, you're lucky I'm putting up with this. Think about it; I wake up in a place I don't recognize, being held in my sleep by some man I never met. If I wanted, I could entirely sue you people. Oh, what am I talking about…?"

Inuyasha had been listening with only half of his mind, mostly waiting for her to shut up so she could answer.

"I can call you whatever I want to. Why, would you prefer bitch?" He asked with a falsely optimistic (if not sarcastic) face.

"I…. Uh…. what? No! Sit."

"Will you stop saying that!"

"I prefer Kagome to wench, you stupid half demon!" At this he growled, glaring up hatefully at her. Hoping to break it up before it began, Sango spoke.

"Well, yes… He has called you that for as long as I can remember Kagome. Continuing though. You understand why each of us fights, right? Our motives for hunting down and killing Naraku?"

"I think I do," Kagome said a little hesitantly, tweaking a dog-ear again. "But about that traveling part… do I really have to be asleep around him?" She inquired, pointing at an angry Inuyasha. "He might try something like he did in the forest."

He shot angrily, sitting up, "I didn't try nothin'! I'm NOT interested, believe me. You should worry more about being around that lecherous monk than me." The last part was rather dry. Inuyasha looked a little to the side, muttered "feh" under his breath, and shook Kagome's hand off of his head.

Kagome glared at him. Even without knowing any details, she recognized that at one point had liked yet hated him, even though she had no proof. She also knew that it was no different right now.

"So, you're Sango the demon slayer… you're in this to avenge your family and save your brother? With that cat demon thing… uh…. Kirara, I think. You're… Miroku the monk-"

"Lecher," Inuyasha interjected, still not looking at them.

"…You want to get rid of some hand curse before it kills you. That's Shippo- fox demon just tagging along because his birth parents are gone. Which leaves Mister Ego… I mean Inuyasha. And you're in it because you are a half demon and you want to be a full demon?"

Meeting her eyes proudly he snorted, "You got that right."

Breathing slowly, Kagome looked around and voiced, "The monk, the slayer, and the hanyou then… But my family, or blood family… they know all about this and are fine with it?"

Shippo nodded and said enthusiastically, "Yeah! You can go back to your time with the well in the forest. YEEP!"

"What the hell are you telling her for? Now she's going to want to go there, go back, and stay back, you stupid runt!" Inuyasha exclaimed with a glare, dangling Shippo by the tail.

If Shippo hadn't been so precariously placed in the way of him, Inuyasha would have been sat again. Though she didn't know quite why, it felt natural to Kagome that she should protect the kitsune from the older hanyou.

"Inuyasha, unless you want me to pull your ears right now, you'll let him go."

He froze and eyed her for a second, grumbling things in a low undertone (Shippo detected at a very minimal wench, baka, and stupid) but dropped Shippo, watching him run to Kagome for safety and then looking the other away again, hands once more in his sleeves.

Blinking, Kagome looked back to Miroku and Sango and asked, "But I have all of that information right? All your names and purposes, I mean. If it's not too much to ask… um… why am I in this? You seem capable to do it all by yourselves."

Everyone expected Inuyasha to make one of his snide remarks or at least say something rude. He had always been telling her to go home because he didn't need her, that he could do this whole quest by himself, and here was Kagome, asking why he wasn't doing just that. Yet all he did was twitch and ear and look back towards the group, interest at least attained once more.

"Well, in honesty you were the one to accidentally shatter the jewel, and you're the one who came back through the well and released Inuyasha from some sort of imprisonment against a tree by pulling an arrow out of him. So… you told me once you thought it was the least you could do, but since then I'm sure you just got more into it. Do you think you can get to like it again now that your memory seems to have been lost?"

The girl shrugged, starting to get confused with a brain overloaded with information and new knowledge. According to the 'strangers', it wasn't new knowledge at all, but forgotten memories, but she was positive that couldn't be right. Whenever she thought about the possibility of losing her memories, she seemed to remember some bright white light… but it meant nothing to her.

"Yeah, well she better. I don't care if she still wants to or not; she's coming with us until we finish. She's the one who purifies all the jewel shards and senses them. Besides, she has what we've gathered!"

"Inuyasha. You always said you didn't need her, perhaps your true feelings for our Kagome are beginning to surface?" Miroku asked. Someone who didn't know him would think he sounded sincere, and maybe a little hopeful. However, his friends -and sadly, that included Kagome- knew he was just being perverted.

His comment did cause Inuyasha to become motionless for a moment though. Inuyasha blinked and looked unsteady for a second before stuttering, "I mean… well, she can't leave because she has all the jewel shards. She wouldn't leave the shards with us yet. That's what I was getting to. And what do you mean by 'true feelings', monk?"

Miroku blinked and smiled, waving his hands dismissively. "Oh, nothing that important. Just keep… doing what your doing." He ignored Inuyasha's glance for a while, pretending to be preoccupied with food.

"For all of your information," Kagome said at last, causing both Inuyasha and Miroku to change focus to her, "I have final say in what I do, and I think I want to stay. At least for a little while. If what you people think is really true, that I've somehow lost my memories, I have a right to know what caused it, right?"

"Of course," a new voice came as Kaede entered the hut. She had left to revisit the sick child from the previous night. "Ye are allowed the final decision. But that which makes me wonder… I am positive Inuyasha stayed with you all night since he retrieved you from the Bone Eaters Well. Should not he know if something altered your mind?" She said honestly, eyeing the both of them.

"You know," Sango said distantly, "She has a point. Inuyasha, did anything happen that you can remember might have made her forget?"

Inuyasha blinked and narrowed his eyes. "Do you think I'd be keeping secrets from you at a time like this? Idiot, of course not. I got her from her time after she went on some date thing with a guy named Hobo and brought her back… I think there was a fight with a demon but it didn't get to Kagome at all. I got it to leave and we just fell asleep there," He figured, noticing how odd it was trying to recall the memory of what had happened after exiting the well. It seemed… harder to trace than the others.

"Hojo? I went on a date with Hojo? Really?" Kagome asked, excited but a little unbelieving. This caused Inuyasha to growl a bit more.

"Great. She remembers him but not me. Perfect."

Kaede smiled ingeniously and said softly, "Could it be that ye are jealous, Inuyasha?" Her question was perfectly timed and brought his growl to a halt and angry stare.

"Of course not. I've got no reason to be jealous of anyone for anything. I could kill him if I wanted, but it doesn't make me jealous… what are you trying to say now, hag?"

His word choice made Kagome glare at him, but also blush a little. Why were these people, her friends, always hinting that he liked her? Was it possible that he used to actually like her, and the feeling of liking him before that she hadn't understood might have once been real? She didn't feel right all of a sudden.

"Kagome, do ye remember the battle Inuyasha has described?" Kaede asked carefully. Her voice was followed by a weird silence as she thought and slowly shook her head.

"I only remember… no wait, after he mentioned Hojo, I remember up until getting home and I went to bed. I woke up in the middle of nowhere with Inuyasha."

Kaede looked thoughtful but Inuyasha protested, "That's not what happened! I came back and when you walked in the door I demanded you come back now because you were taking too long, and then you and I left through the well like we always do. When we came out we met a demon and we fought."

"Inuyasha, I don't remember hearing noise from a fight. We were here all last night, in this very hut. We would have heard you I assume. Nothing was heard or seen, and if it happened right in the well clearing, I'm positive we would have noticed. Maybe your memory is altered too?" Miroku offered helpfully. "You two can't decide on what happened, so who's to say one of you has to be right? Maybe you are both wrong."

A second silence. Inuyasha obviously hadn't considered that, and he tried to recall the memory, now thinking that he too might have had his thoughts altered. Now that he thought of it that way, he remembered seeing some white light. It lasted very briefly then skipped ahead to the recollection of fighting what looked like an insect type demon.

"Now that you mention it… When I think its possible I may not be thinking straight… no comments, idiot," He threatened, noticing Miroku about to say something, "I see some bright white light. Its right before I remember the battle."

Kagome looked over. "I see a white light too. Only mine is right before I step into my house. Its kind of like someone was shining a flashlight in my face," she described to the others. They only wore blank expressions, not really knowing what a flashlight was.

"A white light ye say? I wonder… It is obvious though that at least Kagome has a tampered memory, and possibly Inuyasha in addition. I only wonder as to the cause."

"Me too. I think we all do," Sango said calmly. As if having Kagome forget everything wasn't enough, to have it possible Inuyasha might too was too hard to imagine. In all, it would probably be more dangerous having him forget… there was voice in her head, though, that told her he wouldn't forget entirely.

Though no one spoke after that for a while, the group seemed to know they would have to try and find the cause of the memory loss and find out how to get their reminiscences back. It was silently agreed to start the next morning as to not waste any time in the search.

End Flashback

The hut was very silent, the sounds of the midnight insects being the only noise. Kagome had long since been asleep, Miroku and Sango as well. Having himself just drifted into the land of dreams, Inuyasha was not able to notice the few waves of shining, multicolored dust that came from nowhere, melting before reaching the ground.


	4. Ears and Claws

**Disclaimer – As much as I love Inuyasha, I didn't make him, he's not mine, and never will be…. But I wish he were! O.o o.O**

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Chapter Four, Ears and Claws

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"Um… hello? Mr. Dog-guy? Inuyasha? Are you awake?" Kagome asked cautiously. She was leaning over a sleeping Inuyasha, peering down at him, as he had slouched a little against the wall. She jolted back when he bolted up into a more straight position, looking around as if to find a source of danger.

After a couple seconds of tactile inspection of the room, he looked over to where Kagome had fallen back on the ground and was now blinking at him in silence, barely breathing even. He obviously had given her quite the fright.

Once he himself had blinked he asked, "What are you doing down there? And why did you wake me up?" Inuyasha looked towards one of the windows allowing in light. It was apparent it couldn't be more than an hour or so after sunrise. "You acted like there was a demon here."

"I… you startled me. I just wanted to know if you were awake or not. Sorry if I got you scared," She apologized earnestly, looking like an embarrassed child. Inuyasha raised his nose defiantly.

"No demon is ever gonna scare me," He said plainly, getting back against the wall and looking at Kagome. Though he didn't say it, it was pleasing to know she wasn't really outwardly afraid of him for now. Apparently she trusted him much more than the prior day. "I guess you didn't get your memory back while you slept then…" he muttered.

She shook her head, straightening up and sitting in a position more willing with her skirt. "If you aren't afraid of demons, then why did you get very hyped up just a couple minutes ago?"

Inuyasha very, very slightly narrowed his eyes but looked away before answering, "To protect you from them. That's my job, baka," his voice dull as he said it, as if that should be the one thing she should have been able to remember.

Neither talked for a few minutes, in which Kagome reflected what she had learned the previous night. The more she thought into it, the more she was starting to come to the conclusion she hadn't just used to like him, she might have actually loved him… it was just too confusing. Though she didn't know from experience the person named Kikyo, she had gotten angry (or was it jealous?) hearing her name. What Inuyasha had just told her also seemed like she thought she should have known that. It just seemed… right.

Almost silently, while Inuyasha was still looking the other way, she scooted forward towards him, sitting at his side and smiling slightly when he turned to look at her. "Thanks for protecting me then, I guess," She offered kindly, both feeling safe and unsafe sitting that close next to him.

"Feh. It's what I do best; it's nothing big. You're just a magnet for trouble, it's a given. You just don't make things easy. First you come and shatter the jewel, then you makes hoards of demons just come running out to try and kill you, and I gotta play the hero and save you over, and over, and over again." Though it was odd for him, his tone wasn't entirely scornful. There was some other emotion in it, but even if Kagome had all her memories, she wouldn't be able to trace it.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" She demanded, glaring at him. Inuyasha just smirked.

"I'm experienced. You ain't got nothin' to worry about if I'm around. For the most part you don't even need to worry about Miroku, he's too obsessed with Sango."

Kagome nodded. "Yeah, they seem to like each other. What about us? Did we like each other?" Though she was really just curious, especially given how she had waken up by the well with him, her tone could have been seen as hopeful.

The question made Inuyasha widen his eyes slightly, and possibly redden a bit, but after a moment he let his hair cover up his eyes and looked down towards the floor. "I don't think so."

"Oh. I was just wondering is all. It's just because… well, maybe it was just me, but it seemed like everyone was hinting that we were going out last night, from Kaede to Shippo. It was kind of nerve wracking. Glad that's over… I think…"

She looked down at her feet, deep in thought. He had said no, but she wondered if he meant yes. You just never knew. Kagome sighed, reminding herself she had better things to deal with than trying to find out if she had once liked a hanyou who might not have liked her back. As if smacked on her head, she noticed the kitsune wasn't in the hut.

Cocking her head slightly, she looked around to make sure he wasn't anywhere before she started overreacting.

"Inuyasha, where is…"

"KAGOME!" Right on cue, Shippo bolted into the hut with a scream, waking up both Sango and Miroku in an instant. It caused Kagome to jump to the side, which ended up being into Inuyasha. Caught unaware, Inuyasha was pushed over and landed with a slight thud on his side, Kagome soon to follow, landing right next to him. Shippo didn't seem to care and leapt through the air towards her. Before Shippo reached her, Inuyasha grabbed him by the tail.

"Stupid little brat, what was that all about?" His captor demanded, shaking him slightly over a steadily recovering Kagome.

"Let him go. Please?" Kagome asked hopefully. "I don't think he meant it," She explained. Scowling, Inuyasha dropped him with a slight bump as Shippo hit the ground and crawled over to Kagome.

He blinked at Inuyasha, who had just sat up again, glaring down at the kitsune with hands folded away in his sleeves. Kagome smiled a little bit, that whole routine feeling like it was meant to be.

"Well, it is nice to be awoken at last. How long have you two been up? Alone… unwatched… unattended… un…" Miroku was cut off mid-thought when Sango brought Hiraikotsu down on his head. Kagome blushed a little and Inuyasha just kept glaring his common emotionless glare.

"Stop hinting at things, monk. One more stupid crack of yours and I'm gonna make sure you never want your back scratched again," Inuyasha mumbled while bending his fingers in his intimidating manner, despite Kagome's slight drawing back from the claws and his comment.

Noticing her reaction, the half demon lowered his hands again and turned to meet her gaze directly.

"You don't… you don't really attack things with those do you? That's why you have that sword, right? You wouldn't actually go after something with your…"

"Claws and fangs?" He supplemented, eyeing her along with the rest of the group. "Of course I attack things with them. There was a time when I didn't have the tetsusaiga, and it's all I had to use. Now I have a choice, and I still use both. I'm not using them on you anytime soon," At last he said, seeing that that was what she wanted to hear.

Kagome didn't talk for a little bit after that, considering. Even though the four -five if you counted Kirara- sets of eyes were watching her, she didn't care. She had been starting to make good terms with Inuyasha and then this went and happened. It was not what she needed.

"We kind of decided we were going to start trying to figure out what happened to Kagome's memory today, so lets get going then, shall we?" Sango offered, picking up Kirara and walking outside. The others stood after a moment or so.

They started to walk out when Kirara's transforming inferno caught Kagome's eyes. She shrieked and leapt into Inuyasha, grabbing his arm tightly. At least it was better than grabbing him by the ear. Slowly, Inuyasha looked down at her.

"Kagome… what do you think you're doing?" He asked oddly waiting for another moment before her grip on his arm softened and the blood flow returned. She looked up at him and took a couple deep breaths. She ignored Miroku's perverted smirk from his place and Shippo's confused look.

"There was a fire! Didn't you see it? Right where Kirara and Sango were. It came out of nowhere! You had to have seen it." She ended dully, causing Shippo to smile.

"That was Kirara transforming, because she's a cat demon. Miroku and Sango and I ride with her most of the time," He explained. Shippo remembered when she used to always bring a bike and he'd ride in the basket.

Shippo's comment made Kagome ask, "Where do I go then?" This brought an odd look from Inuyasha and Shippo pointed at the hanyou. "I go with him? Is… is that why the other day, at the well…"

Though he wasn't fully paying attention he nodded as tolerantly as manageable. It made more sense now. He had, after all, told her to climb onto his back, so that must have been how they traveled. It fit now. "I see," She muttered, gasping at the large cat Kirara had become.

"Are ye leaving now then?" Kaede asked, looking up from carrying a basket of herbs towards the now vacant hut. "Ye should all take extra care under the circumstances. It would be most horrible to have another of ye have altered memories."

Inuyasha opened his mouth to make an expected snide remark, but Kagome quickly shot her hand out and tweaked an ear in warning. Growling slightly, he shook away from her grip but didn't say anything.

Smiling, Kaede disappeared into the hut. Sango, Miroku, and Shippo mounted Kirara and Inuyasha turned to a hesitant Kagome.

"You… uh… won't let me fall off, will you?"

"Have I ever?" Inuyasha shot back, a bit annoyed with her hesitation. She should have realized by now none of them meant her any harm. His expression softened a little when he heard Kagome whisper, "I don't know, have you?"

"You're fine with him Kagome. I don't think he's going to be dropping you in the near future. As hard as it may be for you, bestow some trust in Inuyasha," Miroku said helpfully.

"Miroku…" Inuyasha warned with both voice and expression.

Deciding that she had to trust these people even if she wasn't entirely ready yet, Kagome stepped up to him unsurely. How did you climb onto another person who was going to take you flying through the air? Very cautiously, she placed her hands on his shoulders, not really wanting to try and jump.

"Stop wasting time," Inuyasha demanded, "Let me do it…" In a second he had leaned a bit forward and gotten his arms under her, throwing her up a bit and causing her to almost choke him with her arms in surprise. "Kah… Kagome… loosen the grip… on my throat…" he managed, relaxing a bit when she replaced her hands on his shoulders.

"Are you two ready?" Sango asked rather patiently. All four were looking at them.

Managing to move aside Inuyasha's hair to rest her head right above his right shoulder and resist the temptation to play with the ears that were now placed so close within her grasp, Kagome nodded. In an instant Kirara had bolted off.

Jumping straight from a stand still to his quick run, Kagome shrieked a little, burying her head into his hair, which whipped around, somewhat tickling her face, but she remained silent from the shock. She'd never experienced anything like this before. After a few moments Kirara and Inuyasha had matched speeds.

Sango and Miroku looked over at their two friends. Kagome had her entire face hidden underneath the thick white hair and didn't seem to want to come out of the veil it provided. She probably found it safer since the wind couldn't reach her face there, but as Sango commented, it would probably be stuffier.

Hearing the slight discussion between monk and demon slayer, Kagome dared to look out, met by a sharp wind. She was about to duck again for the hair but Inuyasha shook her a little.

"Kagome, stop kidding around. If I'm not mistaken, you used to enjoy this. Calm down," He ordered, being extra careful to minimize the movement for her. Something about him saying that was reassuring. Though she kept her head very close to his shoulder for comfort, she stopped hiding beneath the hair. Since she had listened to Inuyasha, it caused Miroku to praise her like an animal.

"She's not a pet Miroku," Sango scolded, "so don't treat her like one. Sorry Kagome," the girl's friend apologized sincerely, elbowing the monk distastefully.

Kagome didn't answer her verbally, only nodded slightly. She wondered how she might have reacted if she still had her 'true' memories, as these people put it. Sighing slightly (the wind was a little annoying) she experimentally rested her head directly on Inuyasha's shoulder, wondering if he would react. Thankfully, he didn't.

After the first few minutes, Kagome had calmed down a lot. Inuyasha must have been right; she had to have enjoyed it before, because she realized she kind of liked the feeling even now. She was happy he hadn't yelled at her when she nestled her head into his shoulder for added comfort and warmth and had stayed like that for most of the time they traveled.

The three riders Kirara bore were always giving the two of them worried glances, which started to get on the half demons nerves. If Kagome hadn't been in such a fragile state, he would have leapt at them. As it was, he was actually worried to make any really sudden movements. She had gotten comfortable and he didn't want to disturb her more than necessary.

"Do we have the slightest idea where we're going?" Sango asked after about an hour in. Her question raised a couple comments from Miroku and Shippo. Inuyasha just growled.

"Yes, I think… Along with that white light I keep remembering, there's a mix of smells that kind of follows it. I'm not sure if the two are related, but its something, and I'm trying to sort them out," he explained in frustration. He hated not knowing what was going on.

Sango nodded understandingly, looking in front of them for a moment then back to Inuyasha and Kagome.

"Kagome, are you doing okay? You haven't said much." Again, Miroku and Shippo commented on this. Kagome shifted her head out of the red cloth to look at them and smiled a bit.

"Yes," She said proudly. "This is actually kind of fun. I like it, and kind of feel safe with him, even though I didn't think it possible. Not to say that I didn't believe what you guys said, though," She added hurriedly, hoping they wouldn't take it wrong.

Inuyasha turned his head to look at her better, mumbling, "You _better_ feel safe. I don't care what your mind says; I'm not going to let anything happen to you. Ever." Kagome herself could barely hear him, noticing that he had said it quietly deliberately. Blushing slightly, she imagined the sort of comments that perverted monk Miroku might say.

His reassurance caused her to smile a little more warmly and she nestled her head back in position again. Though no one saw it, Inuyasha returned the smile for a moment when she couldn't see before looking back to their path.

In that manner they continued on for another few hours. They didn't talk much, only about what direction to go in and Inuyasha complaining about how this weird 'scent', if he could call it that, sometimes just totally disappeared leaving them at a dead end. Sango suggested that perhaps it really was a demon like had been suggested.

"What do you think I've been telling you? I know it's a demon, just not what kind. Have you been listening to me at _all_?"

Sango blinked. She knew he was in no mood to argue, so she quickly apologized. "Either way, I think we should stop for a little bit. Think about it; Kagome used to not like traveling for very long periods of time, and she probably likes it less now. I'm sure she wouldn't deny a pit stop, right?"

The girl looked up a little hazily from the hanyou's shoulder, almost as if she had been fighting off sleep. Being addressed wakened her for the most part and she nodded softly, looking around. The landscape here was like nothing she had ever seen.

Sango, Miroku, and Shippo leapt off of Kirara and landed daintily on the ground. Well, not exactly daintily for Shippo, who landed and bounced a bit forward before stopping entirely. Kirara transformed back into her smaller form, causing Kagome to catch her breath and cling tighter to Inuyasha's haori.

"Kagome… are you going to get off now?" He asked her slowly while turning his head to look at her. She blushed a little and relaxed her grip, nodding. Sadly, she was just as unsure about getting off as getting on. "It's really not that hard Kagome, just get off," Inuyasha ordered as the rest of the group blinked.

Taking a breath as if she was about to dive underwater, she let go and slid down until her feet touched ground. Safe again, she released her breath and Inuyasha exhaled loudly through his nose. Kagome looked back at him and he sat down in one fluid movement, focusing on Sango.

"What do we do now that we're stopped? I don't want you people to take long, I want to find this stupid demon thing and teach it a thing or two." As Inuyasha said this he cracked his knuckles distractedly. Kagome flinched slightly again at the violent words and motion, but forced herself to remember him saying he'd never let anything bad happen to her.

She stroked a few strands of loose hair out of her face and after a minute of indecision, she sat down right next to him. If she had been sitting this close to any other guy, she would have been blushing profoundly. Oddly, in her opinion, Inuyasha didn't even question her. In fact, he didn't even look at her at first.

When he did, Kagome didn't get uneasy at all, to his satisfaction. She wasn't sure if it was the right thing or not, but she really did feel safe when he was near her, despite her greeting to him in the well clearing. She absentmindedly blushed when she remembered the protective arm he had draped about her waist.

Inuyasha narrowed his eyes slightly at her and shifted his ears so they were both focused intently on the girl next to him. "What are you blushing about?" He asked in a mixture of confusion and anger. His voice brought Kagome back to life. Due to his comment, the other members of the group looked over at her. This just made her blush grow deeper.

"Oh, nothing… Sorry… just remembering something is all," Kagome said rather lamely, trying in vain to get her blush to go away and calm down, looking away from the hanyou. This only irritated him.

"Remembering what?" He demanded, his more angry now than confused. What did she have to remember that would make her blush? In his worst fears it was that Hobo person from her era she had gone on a date with. If it were, Inuyasha would make it a point to kill him the next time they saw each other.

Her head snapped back to look at Inuyasha and she said nervously, "I… uh… it's nothing, really. Just a really embarrassing moment when I was a kid…?" It sounded more like she was asking him what she had remembered and she cursed herself mentally. Lucky for her though, he wasn't the keenest on people when it came to their emotions. The others looked away, deciding that Inuyasha and Kagome had ended that topic.

Eyeing her for a moment, he snorted and looked back, twitching his ears a bit. Kagome could barely contain the desire to leap out again and grab them, no matter how angry it made the half demon that owned the ears to begin with. It just didn't make sense though… actual dogs liked having their ears rubbed right? Shouldn't he?

"Hey Inuyasha?"

"What?" He shot back quickly; his gaze was altered yet again and his ears went faintly back.

"Hmm…" Regardless of Inuyasha's confused look, Kagome took her opportunity and caught him off guard, leaping forward almost ravenously at him and pummeling him into the ground.

Miroku was the first to look back and investigate the noise, and he grinned, clearly liking what he was seeing. Sango noticed the all too familiar look he got when thinking especially lecherous thoughts and followed his gaze, sighing again. Kagome was pinning down a fidgeting Inuyasha, grabbing onto his ears mercilessly and staring him down directly in the eyes. In a few moments she started stroking the ears, noticing that his squirming had somehow changed.

"Why don't you like this? You should like it, not hate it. Every single dog I've ever seen has never protested getting his ears rubbed. In fact, they normally enjoy it a lot!"

The monk couldn't handle it any more and started laughing, ignoring the angry glare from Sango. If she had actually said anything to him it would be nothing short of hypocrisy, because she was mere moments away from doing the same thing herself.

Inuyasha stopped moving instantly when she said that out loud. Though entirely capable of throwing her off (Kagome noticed this with an internal grin of victory) he didn't. "Are… are you calling me a dog, Kagome?" Inuyasha growled irritably. The growl only increased when she shrugged as casually as manageable.

"Well," She blinked, now smiling, "You are part dog demon. I assume dog demons like their ears petted too. I really don't think you're any different… You really don't seem to be retaliating much…"

There was a brief period of time in which only Miroku's laughter could be heard before Inuyasha responded, "Get off!" very hastily and looked uncomfortable. Kagome looked curious at this particular reaction but decided it best not to interrogate him and allowed her to be thrown back and him to sit up.

He looked down and to the side, allowing his hair to mostly cover his face to hide any sense of emotion in case he somehow ended up displaying it. If Kagome actually knew how right she was, Inuyasha knew there would be no end to it. True, he had felt hurt when she implied him just a dog, but he did have the grace enough not to kill her over it.

"Now that you two lovebirds are finished up…" Miroku said suggestively. Inuyasha's head snapped up and he bared his fangs threateningly at him in silence for a minute.

"Say that again and it'll be the last thing you ever do, monk. I dare you…" Like before he was flexing his fingers and claws while he said this.

Recoiling a bit, Kagome said in an almost pleading voice, "Will you please stop that Inuyasha?"

Miroku and Inuyasha stopped their angry glares and looked at her. Inuyasha was about to ask what she was talking about but noticed that her gaze was falling towards his hands, which he stretched again.

"What, that?"

"Yes that!" She demanded angrily, pulling her eyes away from them. Kagome could just picture them tearing her apart into tiny shreds. When envisioning this, a little voice told her he wouldn't do that, but she couldn't be convinced. He definitely had a short temper and she didn't know everything that set it off yet.

Inuyasha looked confused, and basically so did everyone else in the area. "Why? I do that all the time."

"Yeah, well, it makes me feel funny! Just… it creeps me out, okay?" She shuddered slightly and looked away, the image of them ripping her up coming back painfully.

Again, her remark only confused the half demon more. Did that really scare her? There was no reason to be afraid of him, it wasn't like he had attacked her… that was, or course, if you didn't count when they first met. Carefully, he stared at his own claws in agitation. She'd never been afraid of them before, even when she was actually being attacked. Eventually he just hid them back in his sleeves, anger and confusion evident.

When Inuyasha complied with her request, Kagome smiled happily and whispered "Thank you" to him. He just snorted and kept quiet.

"How long do you want to rest for Kagome? Are you hungry or anything? I noticed you didn't eat much last night. I don't blame you though," Sango told her. Kagome looked over to her and shrugged.

"I am kind of hungry… I normally bring food with me right? I remember having my backpack with me this morning, so I probably have some food in there…" She reasoned slowly, looking around for her belongings.

Shippo leapt over to her happily, dragging behind him the backpack in question. "Here you are Kagome! This things heavy, what did you bring this time?" The kitsune hoped she had candy somewhere for him.

She took the bag and opened it, pulling out random things. The group watched as things like schoolbooks, spare clothes, and a first aid kit were thrown about on the ground during her search.

"Ah ha!" Kagome squealed happily, as if she had just located a million dollars. "I did bring food with me." To show what she meant, she dug out a couple bottles of what looked like water and juice, bread, fruit, and something in a bag.

Looking around at all of the things sprawled about, she looked ashamed and murmured, "Do I always bring this much stuff with me?"

Shaking his head, Shippo leaped onto her lap energetically, grabbing the bag of hidden food with high hopes. Instead of flinching when he leapt on her, she smiled. Shippo tore open the bag enthusiastically and smiled when its contents poured out.

"CANDY!"

Inuyasha scowled at him. "If you get really, really more hyper then normal, I'm saying right now it won't be a surprise if you miraculously loose a limb or two. And you can't blame me when it happens, you stupid little ball of fuzz."

"You mean a sugar high?" Kagome asked curiously, but all the others just gave a dull look. "Forget it…" She gave up, realizing they had no idea what she was talking about. As an alternative, Kagome watched Shippo greedily eat any candy within his reach.

Kagome thought it a wonder Shippo didn't get sick, but she attributed it to him being a demon. She let him eat just about the entire bag before she reached over to get a snack of her own to munch on. One apple and some juice should be the perfect healthy snack, right?

The others looked on while kitsune and girl ate, not talking very much. Shippo ended up being the conversation starter.

When finished, he leapt away from the just about empty bag of candy, already feeling the effects of the major sugar intake. Much to Inuyasha's despising, he immediately started running around energetically, getting closer and closer to the angry hanyou.

"I LOVE CANDY! That stuff is good… I want more candy!" Shippo cried out, almost in grabbing range of Inuyasha, who was waiting with a ready hand. "Candy, candy, candy…EEYAA!"

Shippo was snatched off of the ground in a blur of red and brought up by his tail, kicking and yelling. Kagome looked up at this and frowned.

"I warned you, brat. Do you want to loose an arm or a leg?" he asked in a sarcastically happy voice that just added to the fright. Once again, Kagome new she had to do something. She wondered if Shippo was in the way or not.

"Um… Inuyasha, sit!"

Before he had time to say another word he flew forward and down into the ground with a slight glow around his neck. Shippo squealed with happiness when his tail was freed and he rushed to Kagome for protection.

"Cut it out with that!" Inuyasha demanded, looking up from the ground once the main of the enchantment had worn down. He eyed Kagome with anger and- to Kagome's horror- with bared fangs. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw this and she stumbled back a little.

Growling, Inuyasha shot, "Now what? First the claws, now the teeth, I already told you, you stupid wench! I'm not going to attack you!"

At first she didn't listen but did eventually calm down and inch forward again. Some part of her knew he was telling the truth whether she was ready to believe that or not, but she didn't like the easily roused anger. Frustration plus claws or anything that can cause pain equals a bad end combination.

"Inuyasha, don't you think you could try and control you temper for a little while at least?" Sango asked hopefully, "It's for Kagome's sake. You have to remember, I don't think she used to like it even when she still was thinking straight; she just was around it too much. Can you please try? If you keep scaring her like that…"

"I'm not scaring anyone!" He growled at her sitting up again. "If it weren't for my claws and fangs and stuff you'd have probably all have been dead a long time ago. It ain't my problem if she thinks I'm gonna kill her. I told her I'm not, and you know I'm not, she _should _know I'm not, and if she doesn't believe me, that isn't my fault. It's hers. Miss Forgetful there," Inuyasha paused for a moment to look at Kagome, who was starting to get angry, "can either trust me or not. If she doesn't trust me, she's just stupid. Maybe she'd like me to sit back and watch when a demon comes by and let her be killed?"

All the people in the group didn't like that, especially Kagome. Inuyasha seemed either not to notice or, more likely, not to care, and looked the other way. Standing up, Kagome glared at his form. Miroku and Sango frowned, waiting for her to explode and sit him to near death like she used to.

"Hey, let go!"

Kagome grabbed both of his ears painfully hard and pulled them back with vengeance in her eyes. "Stop being mean to me! I never did anything to deserve it that I know of, you idiot." When he didn't respond to this and found it more dignified to endure the painful tugging at his head, she screamed in frustration. This just hurt Inuyasha's ears even more.

"STOP THE PULLING AND THE YELLING!" He screamed back at her, trying to turn around. Her grip on his ears (which were now aching from her hands and her loud volume and were doing their best to flatten, but failing) increased and she pulled them even harder.

The two people and two demons standing off to the side were almost looking afraid. They expected the two to just start killing each other any minute, plus, who to sympathize with? Kagome was always being yelled at and degraded, which would hurt internally, true. However, they had never seen Kagome be so abusive to his ears before. They knew she admired them but didn't imagine her using them for revenge.

"I'm not going to stop until you apologize to me!" Her voice was wavering in her agitation and she continued to increase the strength of her tugging.

Inuyasha grabbed her wrists in hopes it would get her to stop, but he was rewarded with a very strong but brief tug, and he could have sworn his ears were just going to be ripped off. "I'm not apologizing so just stop it already! STOP IT, KAGOME!" His own grip on her arms tightened significantly when she actually dragged him back about an inch. If only she knew how painful that was!

"I said not until you apologize to me," She repeated calmly, though she was beginning to feel the pain of his hands against her arms.

"Who do you think will give in first, Inuyasha or Kagome?" Miroku asked absentmindedly.

Sango shot him a death glare and exclaimed, "This isn't the time; someone needs to stop them before Kagome looses a hand or Inuyasha loses an ear!" Miroku shrugged and went back to watching the two.

"Let go right now or I swear I'll take back my promise and I'll attack you right here and right now!" He threatened, shifting his hold on her so that his claws were revealed more. That got a reaction out of her, but not entirely the one he wanted.

As if there was a gun held to her head, she let go of his ears and took a couple steps back, shaking off his hands. Inuyasha didn't move, too doubled over by the searing pain in his head. He was positive; another second and she would have detached them.

"Inuyasha, how could you!" Sango said frantically. Kagome looked near tears, but the half demon in question still didn't move. Gingerly, he went to touch his ears but found them abused once more when Kagome cried out as loud as ever.

"DAMMIT!" He yelled defeated. This time, it wasn't just from the screaming. When he tried to move his ears back to diminish the noise, even that hurt.

Kagome looked at the hands near his ears, and specifically the claws on them, in a terrified expression. Not waiting to see if he would actually attack her or not, she turned and fled, screaming "SIT!" over the air as she left, but not feeling any much better when the crash came.

"Look what you did Inuyasha!" Shippo wailed, running around in panicked circles. He was glad Inuyasha was too much in pain to reach out of the small crater and take his anger out on him.

Sango and Miroku looked disgusted. Oddly, when Sango moved to get on Kirara and retrieve the rapidly shrinking figure that was Kagome, Miroku held her back.

"Let her go for a while. I think the two of them need to come to reconcile with their emotions before we continue," He whispered to her. Miroku was afraid of the sort of reaction Inuyasha would have if he heard that comment, but thanks to his horribly abused ears, he wouldn't have heard them anyway.

The demon slayer eyed him. "That's all fine and nice, but stop touching me you hentai," She glowered, smacking him across the face again, leaving the infamous handprint. Miroku took it all in good pace, having gotten an exceptional feel of her 'perfect bottom'.

"Inuyasha, aren't you going to go after Kagome before a demon goes and kills her? It looked like she was heading towards the forest, you know she's going to find trouble in there!" Shippo exclaimed.

He looked up and growled at the frantic kitsune. "There's always a forest, isn't there? There's never not been a goddamn forest! Where the hell do they keep coming from!" Inuyasha really was just pissed, but Shippo had to agree he had a point there. "She fucking tried to remove my ears!"

"Stop using that foul language," Miroku asked calmly. Kagome had disappeared from view about the time he said this, and Shippo was now bugging out worse than ever. His comment made Inuyasha just get angrier.

"Shut the hell up! I'll say whatever I want to whenever I want to. Goddamn… ah…" He moaned, rubbing the stalks of his ears softly. They had never hurt this much in his entire life, and he'd been through some rough ear abuse as a child. For another ten minutes, all you could hear were Shippo's cries.

The little fox demon ran around in circles, screaming his head off and trying to persuade the angered and pained hanyou to go find his surrogate mother. The person he was trying to convince was getting more cross every second of wailing.

The monk and demon slayer stood mostly quiet off to one side, not quite sure what to do. It was inevitable that Inuyasha was going to explode angrily soon but they didn't know how soon. If they leapt in to save Shippo now they might get hurt, but if they didn't Shippo would just get even more hurt. They watched as the half demon started to growl louder and louder.

"Um…" Sango began, because maybe warning the kitsune wouldn't be as bad, "Shippo, you making Inuyasha very…"

"AAAAAAAAAH!" A loud shriek filled the air as Shippo leapt suddenly, a very pissed off Inuyasha landing on the ground where he had been.

"…Too late… Inuyasha, leave him alone."

"Why should I?" He shot, glaring at Sango and just daring Miroku to comment. "get back here you stupid ball of fluff. I'm gonna tear you limb from limb!" Shippo wailed again at the threat and leapt for Sango and safety.

The two locked eyes for a second, and Inuyasha's look made Shippo cower even more, hugging Sango's leg tightly for protection.

"Why don't you go fetch Kagome?" Miroku offered at last, trying to break the tension in the air. You could have assumed he'd just suggested that they help Naraku by the look he received from the hanyou.

He narrowed his eyes and said, "Yeah, like that's gonna happen. She nearly pulled my ears off of my head. She wants to go and get killed, that's fine by me! Glad to be rid of the extra work anyway, I don't care if she lost her memory or not. You don't try and detach someone's ears!"

No one could argue that point. Maybe it would have been better if she had just 'sat' him fifty times, but the ear pulling may have been a bit much.

"Still… we can't find the jewel shard pieces as easy if she is gone and we'd never be able to help her get her memory back. Plus… what if Koga found her?" Miroku added slyly.

Inuyasha froze as if he'd been dead. This caused Miroku to grin even more. Before anyone could add their own personal thoughts on the matter, Inuyasha cursed and shot off quickly, leaving Miroku with a lecherous grin plastered on his face.

"I knew that would get to him…" He muttered, watching the red figure vanishing much quicker than Kagome had.

For five solid minutes he continued his complaining to himself. "That idiotic girl… running off for nothing. The hell did I do to deserve that?" Inuyasha mumbled as he raced through the trees, following Kagome's smell.

He stopped not long after finishing his comment, having heard something that sounded suspiciously like crying. Because it still hurt to move his ears, he had to shift his entire head to pinpoint the noise. Someone was definitely crying, and the scent told him it was Kagome. Growling slightly, he continued towards the source of smell and noise.

Hearing someone or something approaching, Kagome looked up and sharply fell silent. The noise got closer and closer, louder and louder. As it did her heart rate increased until it all just stopped and it became dead silent; she developed the feeling of being watched.

"What do you think you're doing?"

She screamed as a flash of red dropped in front of her out of nowhere. "Stop yelling, it hurts!" the figure bellowed at her. Once her senses were regained she recognized the person who was covering his white ears in front of her. To his surprise she just started crying again, harder if anything, and she dropped to the ground, not daring to look towards his hands again.

"Don't cry Kagome… just stop. You know I don't like it when you're crying, so stop." Keeping hands over his ears he crouched down next to her. Everyone knew he hated her crying. "I didn't mean what I said, you have to trust me. I don't want to hurt you whether I have claws and fangs or not."

Kagome looked up and blinked some tears from her eyes. "But you th-threatened me!"

"And you pulled my ears. You have no idea how sensitive they are, do you? You probably forgot that too," He growled. The growl, however, wasn't meant for the words. He had been rubbing the sore bases of his ears and she was looking at him enviously. "What is it with you and my ears?" This time the growl was meant for the words.

A smile. Kagome wiped the last tear away, eyes still fixated on the ears. She mumbled distractedly, "They… are so… cute… I want to touch them again. Please, can I pet them?" Suddenly she perked up in hope, but all she received was a glare.

"No. In case you forgot that as well, you were the one that just about ripped them off of my head under half an hour ago."

"Oh, please? I won't pull them, I swear!"

"No."

"Yes!"

"No Kagome!"

"Sit boy."

He barely had the time to growl at her before he was sent face first into the ground, his hands still covering his ears for dear life.

Just for the ability to fondle his ears, Kagome was entirely unaffected by his claws. She pulled them off of the ears and grinned at his mumble of hatred, then, expertly, she shot her hands forward and touched the bases of the ears. Inuyasha tensed, both from the slight pain of the contact and the overall fact of having her messing with his ears again.

Gently, the girl proceeded in adding as few more fingers and started massaging the bottom of each ear. Only a moment or so later she could have sworn she detected this very deep growl, but it wasn't angry in the least bit. It seemed more of content and enjoyment.

"I knew you liked that," She said triumphantly, stopping her hands. Very quickly, he got his sensed back and pushed himself out of the ground, toppling Kagome over and snorting arrogantly.

"I do not," He said plainly, looking away from her. "Stop playing your stupid games and come on. I came out here to get you and bring you back, no side trips!" However, even as he said this he refused to meet her eyes.

"So you can keep threatening me and freaking me out with those?" Kagome pointed to one of his hands. "I think not. Those, Mr. Dog Person, are generally very creepy."

"They are claws, Kagome. I use them to help protect you. And Sango, Miroku, Kirara and Shippo. It doesn't matter who I wave them at. Just claws," he repeated agitatedly. He wouldn't be able to survive if she couldn't get over that.

Kagome frowned. Holding back a growl he drew a hand out dangerously close to her face and she took a step back from it. When neither talked she walked back up and carefully touched one of the claws. For his part, Inuyasha was being extremely patient with the mind-tampered girl.

"Are you sure? You could be lying for I know. This whole thing could be a lie. I might be on some hidden camera show or something."

Though he had no idea what a 'hidden camera show' was, he smirked at the first part of her comment and took his hand back, grateful she remained still. "You and I both know I'm not lying, so stop being a baka about it and come back."

"Fine then, but can you at least try and stop waving those around blindly?" Kagome pleaded.

He breathed deeply and met her gaze directly. "Whatever, but I aint makin' you any promises or anything. They're mine to do what I want with, so just get used to it. Now come on, I'm tried of wasting time. Like at the well he grabbed her bridal style and took off.

Perhaps ten minutes after he had left, Sango and Miroku looked up as the pair returned, Kagome's face buried into Inuyasha's haori and her hands clutching the cloth by her head with a death grip. The person who's clothing she was clinging too was looking both pleased and annoyed at the same time.

Seeming to just notice her carrier had stopped moving, Kagome warily looked up and towards the ground, which she was thankful was only a few feet beneath her. Just as cautiously, she slowly let go of the fabric under Inuyasha's confused stare down at her.

"Did it go well?" Miroku asked innocently.

"Well," Inuyasha said, looking sharply away from the girl he carried and voice already starting to get angry, "It's a matter of opinion." Like any person should, Miroku sensed now was not a time to annoy either of them.

Kagome shifted a bit, silently asking to be let down. She was amazed she wasn't blushing, considering she wasn't used to being held by anyone like this, especially someone who was almost a 'stranger' to her still. Without looking at her the hanyou obliged and carefully set her down, but she didn't move away from him quite yet.

A ball of orange fuzz leapt at her, taking her a little by surprise and causing her to step back more into Inuyasha.

"Kagome, your back! I'm glad you're not hurt, I was worried." Shippo cuddled into her happily. Everyone was somewhat astounded Inuyasha didn't have a violent response, but they didn't dare say anything about it. "I hate seeing Inuyasha be mean to you, I'm sorry he's just a big stupid jerk."

There it came. The silence and calm before the storm. No one could deny it was coming now. In a flash Inuyasha had grabbed Shippo by the tail, causing both the kitsune and girl to eep.

"What did you call me runt?"

"Shippo, I'm used to him being mean. I think…"

"And… wait, what?" Inuyasha stopped and all eyes focused on Kagome. "Are you agreeing with him? You think I'm a stupid jerk?" He actually looked a little hurt, but mostly just in his eyes, and only Kagome met those perfectly. She grinned.

"Yup!"

Miroku and Sango blinked. Shippo stared and Inuyasha became even more wide-eyed still at her answer.

Sango started shakily, not wanting anything to begin, "Kagome… um…. You may not want to…"

Again, everyone fell silent when Kagome started laughing slightly. Sango and Shippo were speechless, Miroku was looking very interested, and Inuyasha narrowed his eyes in irritation. For another few seconds Kagome laughed. In one fluid motion she wrapped her arms around Inuyasha and hugged him tightly to her.

He tensed first at the contact then grew softer, actually dropping Shippo to the ground. Sango gasped and Miroku smiled with a perverted twinkle in his eyes.

"I believe you won't hurt me," Kagome said just loud enough for everyone to hear. "Oh… I never did apologize for the ears. Sorry," She said stupidly.

Having to keep his reputation, he feh'd and removed her arms, pushing her back an inch or so. "Sorry doesn't make them not hurt though, now does it?" He said sarcastically.

Kagome smirked, actually not caring when she felt the touch of his claws against her skin. She shook his hands from her arms and carefully sat down, trying to pick up the pit stop where it had left off before their fight. After a moment the rest of their group realized this and they two almost perfectly resumed what they had been doing, Inuyasha quickly sitting down next to Kagome again.

Shippo had collected some of the food Kagome had taken out of the bag. He was a little bit confused by a water bottle she had. The small demon had tackled it and found it impossible to take a cap off, because there wasn't any. He started gnawing on the plastic, not realizing he had to pull it out with his teeth to open it.

Once she gathered a few things, Sango came and sat next to Kagome on her other side, watching Shippo battling the water bottle ferociously. The bottles owner was about to explain how to open it when Shippo entirely bit off the top, plashing some of the water all over himself by accident and causing Kagome to start laughing again.

"You were supposed to bite down on it and pull out a little, then you suck on it like a straw in a way. I guess your way works too…" Shippo was emptying the bottle quickly, almost like he was dehydrated.

They watched him for a while, but for different reasons. Kagome and Sango were amused, Miroku simply bored (because he was not in an ideal groping position), and Inuyasha just angry at his stupidity.

"Kagome, do you have any ramen?"

She blinked. "Ramen? Why would I have ramen?"

He was about to call her stupid when Miroku sent him a warning look, causing to stop in his tracks and be a little more came about it. "Because… I _love_ ramen, Kagome. Just check, will ya? If you don't, I will. I can't guarantee you'll have a bag left if I look for it." There was a note in his voice that was hinted all too much with truth. She frowned a bit and crawled over to get the bag.

Wondering why someone like Inuyasha would love ramen, she sat back and pulled the bag onto her lap, going through the contents. Only this time, Inuyasha was watching her intently and expectantly.

The girl pulled out a couple different small articles of clothing, a notebook, some other wrappers of things, a small battery powered microwave thing, and finally what she had set out to find- a package of instant ramen.

"This stuff? What's so special about it?" She asked curiously, tossing it onto the ground casually and repacking her bag, leaving the little cooking utensil out. Kagome had a feeling she was going to need to use it soon.

Inuyasha didn't say anything, just looked at her. His face said it all and she asked Shippo to throw her one of the other few water bottles, which he did happily, now playing with the empty bottle he had finished.

"So, Kagome and Inuyasha, do neither of you know anyone who might have wanted to tamper with either or both of your minds?" Miroku asked slowly while inspecting a juice box observantly. Before they answered he pulled the straw off and blinked. "I think I may have broken your little container Kagome."

Kagome smiled. "No, you didn't break anything. It's supposed to do that, gimme a second and I'll show you. And for your question, no. I don't remember anything. Maybe it was that Naraku guy you people were telling me about."

Inuyasha growled something inaudibly but didn't do anything else. Kagome, however, had taken the drink from Miroku who was still watching intently. She extracted the straw and stuck it into the container, handing the finished product back to Miroku.

He looked over the thing again and then obeyed Kagome's orders and used the straw after twirling it around for a few times. He seemed surprised when he tasted the apple juice but evidently liked it because he kept drinking until it was empty.

"What a peculiar item from your era. Ingenious."

"Yeah, ingenious, whatever. Like you know anything about being smart, monk. Kagome, make the ramen," Inuyasha ordered, not interested in anything else right now. She frowned at his lack of manners, but didn't want to start another fight right now, hastily getting things ready.

Sango, who was happy eating a bit of something that looked like bread from Kaede's village, looked over to them and inquired, "If you don't mind me asking, how did you two get over the fight in the forest?"

Seeing as Inuyasha wasn't planning on talking until after he got and finished the ramen, Kagome answered for both of them.

"Nothing really… he just talked me into it sort of. See, he was explaining how it didn't matter what he said and he hadn't meant to threaten me. I believe him now," She explained, waiting for the water to finish boiling and throw in the ramen noodles. There wasn't much more to it, unfortunately for Miroku, who looked rather disappointed at the news.

"Hentai. Stop your perverted thoughts at least until Kagome gets her memory back," Sango exclaimed exasperatedly.

Miroku grinned and stated, "Dear Sango, do you all really have so little faith in me?"

At this even Inuyasha looked up and the four who could talk said in unison, "Yes." This response brought Miroku into a falsely hurt expression. You couldn't deny, though, that it was odd that even Kagome was able to answer this truthfully after having spent so little time with him after her memory altering.

"I am truly hurt that my own friends would think so little of me. How sad that you believe this. You must know I have good intent."

Inuyasha frowned. "Yeah, its so sad for us to think that when all you think about are women in general or Sango's butt. Her handprint is going to become ingrown on your face if you don't watch it," he snorted, looking back to the ramen, but Miroku smiled.

"And you mean to tell me there is no woman I know of you don't care deeply for? Hm?" Kagome blinked at Miroku's jeer and looked over at the half demon. He seemed to freeze for a second then turned to look at the monk.

"WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK I AM!" He shouted angrily, leaping up and clenching a fist at his opposite. Miroku remained unusually calm. "OF COURSE NOT!" A long, vengeful growl filled his throat after that and the whole group seemed to stop moving and focus on the two; even Shippo and the water bottle he was still attacking.

In the near-silence they remained, a little bit of a breeze building up and Inuyasha's growl never failing until…

DING!

The sudden noise startled everyone but Kagome. Shippo wailed and tossed the bottle aside, dashing into Kagome's lap. Inuyasha faltered and spun around to face the machine, almost ready to attack it. Sango jumped a little and Miroku averted his gaze in an instant of surprise.

"Your ramen is done," Kagome said innocently, setting Shippo down on the grass next to her and opening up the mini microwave, removing its contents. Though she sounded unaware of what was going on, it brought up more questions.

_That Inuyasha… I asked him before about our relation, and he said we weren't going out, or whatever they might call it in this era. Wait! No, he said he didn't think we were. What could he have meant by that? Did he want to? _She blinked as he sat down next to her reluctantly, still eyeing Miroku carefully when he took the ramen from her. _Did _**_I_ **_want to? He doesn't seem like a person I would think of loving… he doesn't seem capable of it… but he is a lot nicer to me than he is to the others._

By now the group had gotten back to what they were doing, but without Sango giving another warning glance to Miroku. Sure it was apparent that the two liked each other at the very least, but with Kagome's problem it wasn't the best things to keep hinting at.

As Inuyasha practically inhaled the food Kagome had just made him, she kept thinking on that matter. It couldn't be possible… Could it?


	5. The Eyes Reflections

**Disclaimer-A friend once told me, "Those who lie about ownership will be sued for their cookies." And… I really want cookies… I eat them while watching Inuyasha!**

**_note _**sorry about the month long wait….. I had some serious computer and time issues. FORGIVE MEH!

_Chapter Five, The Eyes Reflections_

"Keep your perverted hands to your perverted self, you perverted pervert!" Sango shrieked out of nowhere. Within a second of saying that – before even Kagome, Inuyasha, or Shippo could look back at the pair – the infamous slap struck.

"My dear Sango, please, you must understand my logic!" Miroku said hastily yet calmly. Now Kagome and Inuyasha had turned, having landed safely on the ground next to Kirara. Shippo, who had been granted permission to ride with Kagome and Inuyasha, leapt off.

The demon slayer was flaming at Miroku, arm still raised. Gently rubbing the red handprint across his face, Miroku was sighing.

"Would you two cut it out?" Inuyasha snapped, "We got more important things to worry about. Quit wasting time!"

Everyone looked towards him carefully, especially Kagome. She was still trying to find out the easiest ways to avoid the temper he apparently wouldn't get rid of, even for her. It was quite clear she didn't think any of them would harm her but the temper and anger just got on her nerves.

Looking embarrassed, Sango dipped her head. "Sorry Inuyasha. You're right; getting Kagome's memory back is our top priority. If only Miroku would learn to stop his hands from roaming." She shot the demon cat's other passenger an angry look.

"That ain't ever gonna happen Sango," Inuyasha replied coldly. "We need to move, that scent – if you can call it that – is fainting quicker than a normal one. Pretty soon it'll all be gone and we'll be looking at a dead end and no wake up call for Kagome. I'm not willing to let that happen, so get a move on!" He demanded angrily. Kagome gasped slightly as his grip on her increased a bit, but in turn she did the same to his shoulders, immediately shoving her head into his back when he leapt forward.

Kagome blinked as an orange ball of fur climbed from her leg up next to her head, riding safely between her shoulder and Inuyasha, the latter or which was now eyeing the girl distantly. She blushed slightly and repositioned her head so it again was rested perfectly in the place between shoulder and neck, like she had before. And, like before, her carrier didn't comment. He looked back to his path and Kirara appeared next to them.

'The monk and the demon slayer… it's so obvious that they like each other. I wonder why they don't admit it?' Kagome thought, tilting her head a little to catch a glimpse of Sango and Miroku out of the corner of her eye. One thought led to another, and back came the question of the possibilities there might have been before she lost her memory… possibilities with her and the hanyou she was riding with.

Given his attitude, she, her friends, and anyone in her family would be able to tell Inuyasha wasn't a person Kagome would have normally liked. Yet there were all the hints from their little group, they way he talked, the odd feeling of safety and belonging she felt when by him (even if she obsessing over his ears and not realizing it).

Unconsciously she had titled her head in the opposite direction and was staring at Inuyasha's profile acutely. Noticing that he was being stared at, Inuyasha narrowed his eyes and looked at her, mere centimeters away from her face. Kagome withdrew back a couple inches in surprise and embarrassment.

"What?" He asked suspiciously, eyes still narrowed.

"Yeah!" Shippo asked, deciding he should be a part of the 'conversation'. The kitsune climbed a little further up to be better seen, getting the attention of Kirara and her two riders. "You've been watching Inuyasha for a few minutes now, Kagome," Shippo said innocently.

Several times she opened her mouth to respond, but ended up in silence with a loss for words.

"What were you staring at?" Inuyasha repeated, not liking that she wasn't answering him. His ears went back a little bit from distaste, amazingly not hurting as much anymore.

"I… Well," stammered a blushing Kagome, "You see… I thought there was…" She blinked when his ears shot up interestedly, obviously not even expecting an answer. "A… uh… a bug? I thought I saw a bug on your face."

Blinking his amber eyes slowly, he responded, "No bug Kagome. The only bug we know is Myoga, and he hightailed it the last time we had a serious battle. Haven't seen that cowardly flea for weeks now."

"Fl… flea?" The girl squeaked unsurely. She had always hated tiny bugs, and fleas would be no different. "You mean… a flea _demon_, right? You couldn't possibly be friends with a regular flea."

Inuyasha laughed once, not very genuine though. "There's no difference when it comes to him. Myoga's a coward, nothing more or less to it. He's barely helped us at all since you came through the well and you met him for the first time."

Now it was Inuyasha's turn to succumb to memories, no matter how awkward. The only thing he could seriously hope to remember right now was Kagome trying to force him out of his shirt to check a wound she had no idea had already healed. He had refused to let her see it, she had sat him, and then climbed on top of him to try and pull the haori off of him forcibly. Kaede, having been a passerby with a handful of young children, had gotten the wrong idea (but who wouldn't have, given their position) and broken them out of their haze. The pair had been, needless to say, appalled, discomfited, and ashamed at how they had been approached.

He snapped back to life when Shippo hit him. "Inuyasha… what are you doing? You didn't answer Kagome." Inuyasha looked between the girl and youth oddly then back at Kagome expectantly.

"Yeah, what did you ask me? I wasn't listening."

"Apparently so," She said in a mock-angry tone, rolling her eyes to add in some fun. Shippo blinked at her behavior, and Miroku cried out, "Lady Kagome, what is going on over there?"

All three looked over at the monk in unison. Inuyasha growled a bit too defensively for the situation, "None of your business monk. You got a problem if we talk?" He threatened. Kagome drew herself a little bit closer to Inuyasha, keeping an eye on the monk, who had his special lecherous look in his eye.

It was apparent he wanted to respond to that, but Sango elbowed him just hard enough in the chest to keep him quite. Inuyasha squinted his eyes at Miroku as if he was trying to stare down the sun for a few moments, eventually giving it up though, ready to ask Kagome his own question again.

Kagome had gotten about as close to the half demon as possible, considering Shippo was still nestled in the safety space between the two older people. When she felt Inuyasha nudge his head just about into her neck she blushed horribly, her heart almost stopping.

"We going to keep talking or what?" His voice came, entirely reasonable. Her breathing resumed when he removed his head, having gotten her attention.

'Idiot. You're just overreacting now. Getting excited over nothing. Wait… who said I was getting excited? Not about that half demon. Gah, stupid thoughts, stupid thoughts!'

"Yeah. Yes. I asked you about the couple of occasions that flea demon Myoga gave to you."

"Oh. Guy's really old; use to travel around with my father before he died, so he knows enough to help on rare occasion. Basically things I'm sure we could figure out on our own, but it probably just makes him feel important. He's got nothing else to feel good about for. Guy could win a medal for the number of times he's deserted us in the face of battle," He finished dryly. "And he normally shows up when something really bad is gonna happen or just did. I wouldn't be surprised if the bloodsucker shows up in the near future. My guess," He projected his voice a bit louder, apparently wanting the other people to hear, "Is that Myoga appears telling us about a number of demons he guesses could have caused this. Then he'll try and tell us how to find them and beat them, and mostly likely run off in the next day or so and it'll turn out the information he gave us wasn't worth shit."

"Inuyasha!" Kagome gasped. If her hands had been free she would have covered Shippo's ears. "Don't be so mean."

"It's the truth. If you had any memory about him, you wouldn't be responding like this."

Miroku looked a little bit curious but said momentarily, "No Inuyasha, I am fairly certain Kagome would still act like such. Have you forgotten how Kagome used to be, maybe?"

The monk received a threatening look from the hanyou and silenced with a stupid, pointless grin. He enjoyed causing trouble, as they all… or almost all knew.

Kagome was confused, again, at the pointless conversation this had become. Shippo shifted and caused her to look down, at least taking the voices of a now arguing Miroku and Inuyasha out of her ears.

"Do they always argue?" The girl asked the young kitsune.

For a moment it seemed Shippo didn't know Kagome was talking to him, then he smiled and nodded energetically. "Yeah. Or at least Inuyasha always is, but it's normally with you. You two are always fighting about things I don't understand, but normally you win. All you have to do is sit him, and he loses."

"Really?"

"No," Inuyasha interjected, looking away from Miroku with a ticked expression. Feeling left out, or so Kagome assumed, Sango decided to have a say in things.

"That's arguable though, isn't it?" She asked. "If it's an argument that involves Kikyo there's normally at least one 'sit' in it, isn't there?"

The mention of the dead priestess caused the still talking people to silence, and Sango realized she had probably just brought up something she shouldn't have. Kagome, who didn't understand the sudden silence and tense feeling in the air, shifted uncomfortably.

"Who's… who's Kikyo?"

All eyes focused on Kagome, including Inuyasha's. Especially his. Miroku, not sensing anything entirely wrong (but probably just trying to see what kind of reaction he could get from the half demon) started to smile happily.

"Kikyo is the person that Inuyasha used to love before–"

A sharp growl like nothing any of them had ever heard before, unless Inuyasha had gone full demon, filled the air and cut Miroku off quite nicely. Kagome flinched a little at the terrifying noise, but relaxed slightly when she realized who made it, only to tense yet again.

"I'm not kidding Miroku. One more word out of your stupid mouth and I'll rip it off your face."

'Did Miroku just say what I think he did? He used to love someone? This Kikyo person? And before… what? He definitely said he loved her before something. Does that mean he loves someone else now? Who?' Kagome thought nervously. It was weird though, she noticed, the emotional effect this was having on her. Being in high school, her and her friends would always talk about who loved who. But hearing the words Inuyasha and Kikyo together made her feel weird. She didn't like it one bit.

"Have I ever met her?" Kagome said aloud, not meaning to be heard. Surprisingly, Inuyasha answered.

"Yeah. Can we drop it at that? I don't want to talk about her right now Kagome…" His voice trailed off and he looked towards Kirara and her riders for a moment, almost daring them to say something else.

The girl shrugged slightly, but definitely didn't want to stop picking at the topic. This whole weird, freaky, unreal experience was getting more and more interesting and complicated every minute.

Conversation died down entirely even after the tension in the air disappeared. Not one wanting calm and boring, Shippo smiled as if someone had thrown an exceptionally good idea into his head.

"Hey Kagome, have you ever seen…" He left space for a dramatic pause, "…magic?" Shippo looked up at her with happy eyes.

Within moments, everyone's eyes were on Shippo. Most intent was Kagome, who smiled. "No, not really. Only this one really fake show on t.v. a long time ago. I didn't like it, but that was because the guy was so horrible. Why, do you know magic?"

"That's about all he does know. It isn't good for anything either," Inuyasha said dryly, bringing a frown from Kagome.

"And that's not very nice. Shippo, I'd love to see some magic."

Both Sango and Kagome smiled at the enthusiastic expression of the child, and Miroku grinned, ready to take their distracted state and mess with Sango's rear end. His plans were cut short when Sango seemed to realize her mistake and warned, "If you think about touching me, I'll throw you off." And, it actually seemed to discourage the monk.

Shippo leaped off of Kagome's shoulder just as Inuyasha reached the full height of a jump. She yelped for a second in worry, and almost fainted when a large pink bubble with humongous eyes floated up next to them.

"… Wow! You had me scared. You're good at that," She commented kindly.

By now all of the others were back on focus, having been use to Shippo and his fox magic. Kagome, however, was genuinely impressed, especially when he demonstrated his foxfire technique.

"Stop fooling around you two, we don't have the time. That damn demon is just getting further and further away from us every second. I'm not gonna risk Kagome's memories to it!"

And Shippo stopped moving and looked towards Inuyasha, along with everyone else. He had a determined look about him, and increased his speed slightly.

'So he does care more than the others,' Kagome concluded silently, observing the hanyou very carefully.

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"You say then that Inuyasha and the other's have already stopped by and left?" Myoga asked interestedly.

The old flea was perched perfectly on the rim of a discarded cup in Kaede's hut, talking to the old woman and trying to figure out where Inuyasha and his friends had gotten. Kaede nodded slowly.

"Young Kagome has found herself faced with a most terrible problem."

Myoga blinked. "Really? What kind of problem is it?"

Taking a moment to sip some of her drink, Kaede sighed. "One of the worst my eyes have ever witnessed. Our Kagome has fallen victim to a loss of her memories. Ye must know that this implies she doth not recognize any of her friends of this time. There is reason to believe Inuyasha has suffered a similar fate, but to a much less severe extent."

There was a slight moment of silence before the small demon started jumping frantically. "That is impossible! Only a few types of demons can successfully alter memory! I've not seen a butterfly, fly, or that type of moth demon in some time! If what you say is even true, chances are that only a moth of butterfly demon could have done it so well."

"It is indeed true," Kaede said calmly, drinking a little more, "And that is where Inuyasha and the others are headed. They are in search of the demon who has tampered Kagome's mind."

Myoga leaped around ecstatically crying, "But even if they find a demon that could be the culprit, they will not know how to get their memory back! Kaede, do you recognize any of the following names: Omoi, Ryouken, Kinenrosu, or Henkashinen?" he was attempting to list the names of all moth and butterfly demons he knew of that had ever lived anywhere near the village.

She took a few minutes and nodded. "Yes, Omoi was killed some time ago, and I believe Henkashinen and Kinenrosu are still living somewhere in this land. I have not heard of this other name though."

Provided with the new information, Myoga started thinking and said aloud, "Then I'm certain Ryouken could not have been the culprit. You should have known if it was she. So it is either Kinenrosu or Henkashinen. I must find Inuyasha and tell him!"

"A moment of your time, perhaps. What do you know of those two demons?" the elderly priestess inquired patiently, and Myoga scowled.

"They are both unruly demons. Both are butterfly demons of the same bloodlines, but Kinenrosu only uses her powers for amusement. She would not be so bad as Henkashinen. I believe the two are cousins, and he is truly destructive. He's been inactive for the past century though, nothing severe, but he is ten times worse than the other. I'm sorry, I must leave at once!"

So, without any more word of the subject of the 'horrible evil afoot', Myoga gathered his miniscule belongings and dashed from the hut to fetch his crow and catch up with Inuyasha.

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Despite various protests from Inuyasha, Kagome had managed to convince the group to stop traveling so hurriedly and allow her to walk for a while. She'd argued she wasn't used to being carried, which got some controversy out of the group.

"What would you know? You used to be carried all the time!" Kagome had been set down and she couldn't see who had spoken, but she knew.

"Even if I did, it's not like I have memory of it. Can't I just stretch my legs? I don't want them to get all cramped."

"Heh. They won't Kagome. Besides, humans walk too slow."

She spun around to face Inuyasha and eyed him up and down. "Well, I don't care! I think YOU care TOO MUCH. It's my brain, and you're more worried about it than I am. There's something not right about that. What are you, a stalker?"

Miroku blinked and sighed. Kagome did have a point; Inuyasha was overreacting. Then again, it could only be expected.

"He cannot be a stalker even if you wanted him to be dear Kagome. The term 'stalking' would involve not being very well known and attempting to follow someone sneakily, I believe. Our Inuyasha has not done that, so I don't think that's the right word."

Very swiftly, the half demon appeared behind Miroku and hit him over the head.

"The right word for what? Try me."

"Oh nothing," Miroku said frantically, waving his hands dismissively as Sango gave a defeated sigh. The slayer hated to admit their monk companion would never change.

Kagome, however, was watching all this with mixed emotions of anger and depression, and even confusion still. Too many things were happening too quickly. She was furious about the way this was happening, depressed that she could not remember the people that were obviously her friends, and beyond baffled at why Inuyasha was so protective of her.

The others continued arguing fiercely and Kagome studied the sky. In about and hour or two the sun would set and it would start to get dark. Part of her was worried about sleeping outside of a building in the middle of nowhere, and the other was excited. Either way, nothing would get done just standing around here fighting.

With a determined look on her face and a hunch that if she sucked up to him he'd listen, her eyes fell on Inuyasha, who was now growling angrily at Sango and dangling Shippo from his left hand. Despite her curiosity as to when Shippo had entered the fray, she marched over to them.

"Miroku, please, we all have to stop. I must agree with Inuyasha, we should not be walking!" Sango said calmly, changing her views when she heard Inuyasha's growl.

"But my dearest Sango, we must listen to Lady Kagome! She's in a fragile state."

Within a few feet of the group, Kagome did her best to put on a begging 'puppy' face, picturing the way she'd seen kids ask their parents for things.

"Inuyasha?" She asked cautiously. For a moment he didn't respond, but eventually turned to look at her.

"What… uh, Kagome?" The surprised and confused tone of his vice was evident and Miroku and Sango looked over at her too. If it weren't so serious, they probably would have burst out laughing.

Keeping up the face, the girl took another step closer to Inuyasha and said in a regular voice that didn't quite match her expression, "Can we _please_ walk? I promise I won't get tired!"

Now Miroku couldn't hold it in. "Yes Inuyasha," he mocked with a slight laugh, "PLEASE let us walk! Mighty Leader of our Group, allow us to travel on foot!" Sango glared at him and it didn't take long for her and Inuyasha to both smack him over the head.

After the monk shut up, Inuyasha looked back at Kagome, who had grabbed his arm to get his attention again.

"Please?" She begged a second time, looking hopeful.

He was torn between two firm opinions, and at first growled a little in frustration, but Kagome didn't falter. Once Inuyasha caught her pleading eyes dead on for more than a few seconds, his ears went back and he looked away.

Under his breath, he muttered, "Fine…"

"Yay!" Kagome hugged his arm for a second then blushed and let go, grabbing Shippo from his other hand. "We get to walk!" She said childishly, hugging Shippo instead.

Miroku and Sango calmed down a little once Kagome started moving on with Shippo protectively in her arms. Sango and Kirara speeded up to reach them, and Miroku grinned.

"Wise decision, friend. It appears you do have a weakness after all."

"Shut up!" Inuyasha snapped, jumping the distance between them and the already walking portion of the group, leaving Miroku to run after them. And once again, conversation didn't take long to get underway.

"So… I still have a couple questions, if no one minds. I think I heard someone talking about other people we knew back at…. Uh… Kaede's. I'm pretty sure someone mentioned something about wolves, and another about Inuyasha having some sort of brother of sister?"

Inuyasha flinched, knowing whom she was talking about immediately. Miroku, Sango, and Shippo shared a common, unsure glance before looking at Kagome, who was oblivious to their reactions.

"Why do you want to know?" Inuyasha asked barely above a whisper and barely holding back one of his growls. In response, she shrugged innocently, apparent that she was just curious.

"I do have a stupid half brother named Sesshomaru, and we do know a wolf demon named Kouga. Unfortunately."

They all knew this wouldn't satisfy her, and within a couple minutes she asked more about the both of them. Miroku and Sango decided to answer for Inuyasha and save him the trouble.

"Inuyasha's half brother is a full demon, and is constantly trying to take the tetsusaiga away from him. He has a small travel group with a two headed dragon, a human girl, and a frog or toad demon, I don't know which. They are, in general, evil," Miroku explained calmly.

Sango nodded and added, "He has helped on very slight occasions though… rather discreetly. He does hate doing anything outright benevolent.

"As for Kouga, he's the alpha of a now destroyed pack of wolf demons. Naraku sent one of his incarnations to destroy them. Now he has only two of the pack members left, or it was the last time I checked. I think they were called something like Ginta and Hokaku."

Both had purposefully left out the part about Kouga's affections towards Kagome, but there was nothing like the mind of a young and innocent child who spoke his mind.

"Hey! You forgot to tell her that Kouga is practically madly in love with her!" Shippo declared from her arms. Kagome blinked in shock and looked down at the kitsune, who nodded proudly. "Yeah, the guy's mad about you. I think Inuyasha's jealous, cause he really hates Kouga because of it. You should see the two of them going at it sometime, it's really funny."

Like magic, Inuyasha leapt from one side of the travel group to the other, right in Shippo's face.

"You find it 'funny', huh? See if you ever see daylight again." Shippo eeped at Inuyasha's threat and ducked into Kagome for protection. She glared at him.

"You have some serious issues, you know that? What did Shippo ever do? He's just a little kid, and he doesn't know any better. Besides, it's not like there's anything wrong with it. Unless you really_ are_ jealous…" She hinted teasingly.

He drew back a couple steps as if slapped. "Yeah right! Why should I be jealous of that stupid wolf?"

'Good question,' Kagome thought silently, walking past him, purposefully pushing him to the side a little and causing Sango to smile with pleasure.

Taking only a couple minutes to recover, Inuyasha took place directly next to Kagome and folded his arms into his sleeves again, crossing them at the same time. A renewed weird tension filled the air, but this was different than an angry tension, and it kept them silent.

Several times someone made to say something but they stopped short by themselves. Oddly enough, even Shippo sensed that now wasn't the time for talking, and all he did was nestle deeper into Kagome's arms and enjoy the smooth walk.

For another hour or so they continued on, changing direction only when Inuyasha stopped and took a moment to obsessively smell the air and ground and found the faint trail headed in another direction, bringing them closer and closer to the forest they had been traveling about a mile or two away from.

They had just passed by a small cluster of trees not quite yet in the actual woods when a black speck appeared in the sky, sinking towards them daintily.

"One guess who that is…" Inuyasha murmured, watching the crow as it got closer and the rest of the group halted to look.

Once the bird was about fifteen feet over their heads, something very small leaped from it and floated down, allowing the bird to fly off on its own. After a few moments, Myoga landed faintly on the ground before them, leaping rather quickly and energetically.

"I'm so glad I found you! Kaede told me that you've been visited by an evil demon!" He cried, almost instantly finding himself on Inuyasha's nose, staring him down ineffectively. Inuyasha brushed him away and snorted.

"You could say that. Why don't you ask Kagome? Kagome, this is Myoga. I told you he'd show up sooner or later."

Kagome squinted her eyes and got up real close to stare at the small demon intently, almost practically staring at Inuyasha's shoulder now.

"Of course its me!" Myoga exclaimed, jumping up and down again. "Why wouldn't she recognize me? Is Kaede telling the truth then?"

Inuyasha shrugged. "Well, that depends. What did the old hag tell you?" Even though Kagome gave him a look again at how he talked about the elder priestess, she didn't say anything.

"Lady Kagome has lost her memory! That's what she told me when I went to see her! She also said there was a good chance you had yours altered too!" He was still leaping about.

Kagome nodded slowly, entirely interested in the little flea demon. "She wasn't lying. It's true, apparently. It only seems like I met all these people no more than a day or so ago."

After Myoga leapt suddenly onto her face, she took a step back but stared down at him.

"That's not good! You have to get it back right now!"

"I think you figured that out Myoga," Inuyasha said dryly, picked up the frantic demon between two claws. "And like I also expected, can you tell us who did this or where they are?"

"Kaede and I were talking about the very thing, but now that I've seen it myself, I'm positive." Kagome cocked her head and Miroku and Sango took several steps closer.

"Please Myoga, can you tell us what you know about what happened? We're having a hard time trying to figure out where the demon responsible went to," explained Sango earnestly.

Myoga nodded. "Yes, originally I determined it would be either a moth or butterfly demon of sorts. Specifically, two butterfly demon came to mind: Henkashinen and Kinenrosu, both from the same family."

It was like a slap of realization. Inuyasha dropped Myoga instantly and looked rather pissed about something. The others of the group blinked, and Kagome took a single step forward towards him.

"What's wrong?"

After they eyed him expectantly for a couple minutes, he clenched a fist and said slowly, "That name. I'm positive I've heard it somewhere before."

"What name?" Kagome said, beginning to sound curious and almost smiling, "Kinenrosu, right? Is that the one?" Inuyasha nodded awkwardly and Kagome grinned. She recognized the name in the same manner her did. She knew she'd never heard it before, yet it seemed like she had.

Sango, Miroku, Shippo, Kirara, and Myoga looked confused, not understanding at all what was going on between Inuyasha and Kagome. Not willing to be left out (and resuming his jumping) Myoga demanded, "You two! What's going on that's so special! I must know right now!"

"It's the name Kinenrosu," Inuyasha explained, "I know I've never been told it, yet I've heard it somewhere before. Apparently so has Kagome. I think that's the one, because the sound of it pisses me off…." Again, he tensed his already clenched fist some before relaxing it a little.

"Phew!"

Inuyasha narrowed his eyes and glared down at Myoga, hearing his sigh of relief. Given his current state, anyone seeing anything good about ANYTHING right now got him mad.

"And what're you so happy about?" The half demon questioned as calm as he could manage, but not making a great difference. Noting his angry tone, Myoga stopped and leapt back onto his shoulder.

"Of the two, Kinenrosu is the weaker one. Besides, I know a few different places she might be."

Inuyasha looked shocked, and Kagome overwhelmed. "Really? Can you tell us?"

He nodded enthusiastically and began to describe the methods Kinenrosu used to have fun, which was already old news to them. Myoga gave a physical description and the relation to Henkashinen, why it was better they had her as they prey, and practically everything he had told Kaede.

"As to where she could abide, I should have figured she'd be the more likely of the two to be the culprit. Naturally, butterfly demons prefer forests, very much like the one around here. Kinenrosu, however, is notorious for finding mountains and rocky areas in forests to live; not just any regular wooded area will do. There are several places around here like that. Considering you are already following some sort of trail, I can narrow it down to three.

"In the direction you were traveling in when I came, about fifty miles or so ahead is a small mountain; Mount Kikawa. More towards the right is the larger Mount Amekumo, almost directly next to the very small Mount Enpitsu. I'm certain you'll find her in one of those."

"So, you're telling us that there are mainly three places she could be, even if we were to lose the trail? What if she were to have moved by the time we arrived at any of the mountains?" Miroku asked truthfully.

"Doubtful. Butterfly demons are fairly territorial. Besides, we are not even positive it is she you're truly after," Myoga countered simply.

It had started getting dark by now, and when Kagome left to tend to a little fire they had constructed, Inuyasha asked, "So we kill her to get the memories back?"

"No! That's precisely why I had to find you quickly. The memories will probably have been stored in some sort of crystalline or glass-like orb, likely to be white or yellow. You must shatter that directly after you were to defeat her. If it were before, the memories would be released only to be taken again, and put directly into her mind. Then you could never get them back. If you defeated the demon much longer before you shattered the orb then the stolen memories would fade with their captor. Then also, it would be too late to retrieve them."

"What!" Inuyasha exclaimed angrily

"Yes. That is why many butterfly and moth demons only take memories seldom in their lives. Once they do it will drain their power for a slight bit because some of the energy it took to alter the memories will go with the stolen true memories into the orb to help contain them. They regain their strength though, after the memories have had a few days to settle down. When did the memory loss happen?"

Before anyone could answer, Kagome came back from grabbing some more wood to throw on the fire. "I woke up here a couple days ago only," She said sorrowfully before sitting down rather close to Inuyasha, though he made no comment.

"Then she will have gotten all of her power back by now. It is essential you follow my instructions or neither of you can ever have you memories right again!"

'We must not let that happen,' Miroku thought as he nodded in unison with Sango. Inuyasha and Kagome kept utterly quiet until Shippo spoke up.

"Myoga, what'll happen after they get their memories back? Will they forget any of this ever happened at all?"

He pondered for a moment then shook his head. "No. They will have entire recollections from the moment their memory was altered until the moment they get it back from the demon. Anything that they did or thought about while their minds were tampered will be remembered."

"That sounds like an interesting effect," Sango thought aloud.

"Indeed," Miroku agreed honestly. "You would think what happened during that time period would be forgotten." Sango and Shippo nodded.

"Yes, well… I probably won't be able to stay with you very long, I have some business to attend to in the near future."

Inuyasha grinned at Kagome and said to her (but hinting that it was directed to Myoga), "I told ya. He runs away as soon as possible. I wasn't lying to you before. Danger hasn't even showed up and he's hightailing it."

"No I'm not!" Myoga fumed, resuming his famed bouncing. "I have some very important issues to deal with involving the sacred jewel and Naraku!"

'Sure he does,' Kagome mused, realizing the hanyou hadn't lied to her at all. 'But then again, I don't know him to be able to judge him…' "Are you at least staying the night then, Myoga?" She asked charitably. Myoga calmed down and stilled, looking away.

"I suppose so, until the time calls for me to leave."

"Don't you mean until danger comes?" Inuyasha offered nonchalantly, sniffing a cookie Kagome had given to him. Deciding it was fine, and that Miroku and Sango were already eating theirs, he ate it quickly.

"No, no, no! Stop accusing me of cowardice!"

"Well, its not like you deserve much better," he added, looking around carefully, almost as if expecting something. "Besides, what does it matter? Even if you did have some jewel business, you aren't gonna be here when the fighting starts. It works either way."

Sighing, Myoga settled down in his place, watching the others eat and wondering why he even bothered.

It was silent for a bit, during which time Kagome happily made some more noodles and sandwiches for everyone and passed them out. She finished second, because again Inuyasha had beaten everyone, and sighed, shivering slightly. It was getting darker every moment and even their little fire was dying down a bit.

"Are you okay?" She looked around to see Inuyasha several inches from her face. "You're acting kind of weird again."

Blushing a little, she drew her face back to put more distance between them. "I'm fine. Just a little cold, that's all. I just kind of realized… I don't have anywhere to sleep. I don't have a sleeping bag with me, and its kind of chilly."

He backed up a bit and crossed his arms. "If I hadn't seen how you reacted waking up right next to me, I'd offer to help keep you warm again. I think we all know that didn't work very well," He said in a voice no one could quite place.

"You offered to keep her warm?" Miroku said, just beginning to start hinting at the two again. "In which manner was this accompli-" He stopped short when Sango brought Hirakotsu down on his head with a lone sigh, thinking, 'He will never be able to stop himself…'

"Stop being yourself, Miroku. The night before she woke up and lost her memory, she was cold and neither of us was in any shape to travel. We sat down right next to each other and fell asleep, nothing more, nothing less."

Though Miroku was still grinning, Kagome gave him even more to think about.

"That's not true. When I woke up you had your arm around me. Like you were trying to protect me from something and keep me next to you," She added for a bit more description. Miroku perked up and waited to see if there was more.

"Because as far as I could know at the time, we had been in some huge battle and I didn't want anything to come and hurt you."

Miroku looked a little disappointed, but caught sight of Sango with her weapon at the ready and made no direct comment. He did, though, put his thoughts into an offer. "Because none of us carry blankets with us, perhaps you could repeat the gesture tonight as well? I'm sure Kagome will not react the same when she awakens. She has… met you for a second time, after all."

Kagome shrugged, not sure she wanted to. It was awkward enough being around these people, even more awkward to be allowed to be carried by someone and sit extremely close without either of them making a comment, but it would just be freaky to sleep that close to a guy she didn't know that well… or, at least didn't know that well anymore.

Having full knowledge of Kagome's reaction, not just the guesses the others had, Inuyasha blinked and responded fairly calmly, "Unlike you, I'm not so sure. You don't realize that I woke up to her smacking me about five times for no apparent reason, do you? And don't you dare say that you're smacked for no apparent reason too, because there is a reason and you know it."

She actually felt hurt. Kagome eyed Inuyasha carefully, remembering her reaction too. Now she felt horrible about the whole thing, and even worse that he didn't trust her not to react like that again. Feeling emboldened to have to make it absolutely known that she trusted them all now, she cleared her throat.

"I don't mind. If I promise I'll be calm when I wake up, would you agree?"

All eyes turned to her in turn, and Miroku smiled inwardly. Even now, it seemed, Kagome couldn't hide her past emotions for the hanyou either, or so he figured.

"Can you really promise that? I, personally, don't want to be smacked out of a tree first thing in the morning."

A pause and moment of consideration, then Kagome answered unsteadily, "Out of a… a tree? As in, we'd be sleeping in a tree? Not on the ground?"

He blinked and turned back to Miroku. "See? She doesn't want to sleep in a tree anyways."

Hearing this, she shook her head and quickly spoke up, "No, no, I don't mind. I've never slept in a tree before. I was just kind of… puzzled by the concept is all. I thought for sure it was impossible to sleep in a tree without falling during the night. You… won't fall right? You'll actually stay in the tree?"

"Duh. I sleep in trees all the time, and I haven't fallen out of one since I was around six."

She nodded, considering his words, and sighed. "Then I guess I'll sleep with you in a tree tonight."

"Now Lady Kagome, when you say 'sleep'…" Miroku again was silenced when Sango whacked him over the head. Even so, she blushed a little and looked away.

"Then let's get to sleep. We've learned quite a bit about who we're looking for and how to get all of your memories back, you two," Sango suggested. "Not to mention, this is the first day Kagome has really traveled since her memories were lost. She's probably exhausted, right?"

As if on cue, Kagome yawned once and nodded. "Pretty tired, yeah."

"Then you two get to your tree and Miroku and I'll sleep at its trunk, Shippo and Kirara can lay down next to us, and Myoga too. Sleep sounds good about now. How about it you guys?" The demon slayer added hopefully.

Shippo and Miroku shrugged, Myoga, Kirara, and Kagome nodded, and Inuyasha said nothing. As if moving quickly would kill them, they stood extremely slowly. Only after everyone else had been up and started moving towards the small cluster of trees they had passed not long before did Inuyasha get up.

"You won't let me fall, will you?" Kagome asked guardedly when the two of them started walking.

"Baka, I already told you. I'd never let anything happen to you, especially falling out of some stupid tree."

Satisfied, Kagome smiled and moved a little closer, causing him to blush slightly. "I trust you," She told him kindly. "And if you do let me fall, I'll kill you," she teased lightly. "Especially if you let me fall on the perverted monk."

Inuyasha growled lowly, "Ain't gonna happen."

By the time the two of them had come to stand next to Miroku, Sango, and the others, they had begun to get settled down, Sango on the entire opposite side of the trunk, keeping herself furthest from the wandering hands of a certain someone. Kirara was ready nestled a couple inches from her, and Shippo was deciding where to sleep.

"You're sure about this?" Kagome glanced at the half demon when he asked this yet again and nodded firmly. "Whatever…" the others watched as Inuyasha grabbed their friend securely and crouched down. Kagome hugged herself to his chest moments before he leapt up.

When she opened her eyes, she noticed he had perched steadily on a branch and was motioning for her to let go for a minute. Looking down at Sango some fifteen or twenty feet below them, Kagome very, very cautiously loosened her grip and clutched the branch tightly.

"I said I wouldn't let you fall," Inuyasha reminded her, moving very quickly from where he was until he sat against the trunk of the tree perfectly still. Kagome, still a bit too terrified to move, looked around cautiously.

She realized that if she got to him she'd be safe; the girl inched towards him determinedly, trying her best not to look down at Sango, who was smiling at her friend's boldness.

As soon as she got within a foot and a half of Inuyasha, he grabbed her arm and yanked her forward, causing her to yelp in fear of falling, and she slammed her eyes shut. When she didn't feel like she had fallen, and instead felt Inuyasha's fire rat cloth, she opened her eyes warily.

He was looking at her like she was insane; Kagome had been pulled up against him and his arms were wrapped carefully around her to prevent her from making any movement that would result in her toppling off the tree.

"And you're positive you're okay? You seem kind of… jumpy, Kagome," He said truthfully, not enjoying that she had 'apparently' lied about trusting him with keeping her safe.

Taking another look around, Kagome shook her head. "I told you it was my first time being in a tree. You startled me is all," She tried to explain, still looking down from the branch on either side of her, to see that Sango had already lost interest.

He looked unsure as if to listen but shrugged, taking his arms away. Kagome noticed and quickly grabbed one tightly.

"No. Please, don't let go of me!" She begged, looking about frantically. Inuyasha would have protested or made some snide remark, but he caught the genuinely worried look about her and brought his other arm back, drawing her even closer to him and keeping a firm grip on her.

"I won't then," informed a sincere hanyou. Kagome sighed, feeling warm and content. She snuggled into his clothes and rested her head against him, taking only about ten minutes before she fell asleep.

The following morning Kagome woke up with a slight yawn that took the form of a very deep breath. She blinked but kept still, remembering she was in a tree. One of the first things Kagome noticed was that Inuyasha had not let go of her, as promised, and was still clinging protectively to her. He had, actually, dropped his head forward so it rested on her shoulder.

Secondly, she felt something very light and feathery against her upper cheek. The moment she attempted to move her head a bit then put it back in the same position, the object withdrew but brushed back into place quickly. She giggled a bit because it tickled, and began to turn her head to see what it was.

By turning her head, she realized what it was as it flickered yet again against her skin, signaled by the slight movement against it. On purpose now, Kagome moved her head very slightly and giggled extremely quietly when Inuyasha's ear twitched once more, this time right in her eye.

She repeated the motions again about three times until her giggling got out of control. The fact that his ears were able to twitch even when he himself was entirely asleep was overly amusing to Kagome. On the fourth time the practically silk ear brushed against her skin, her already ecstatic giggles increased slightly in volume. That combined with the fact that he felt as if somebody was pestering him while he was trying to sleep, Inuyasha stirred.

The moment Kagome's childish giggling reached his now functioning ears, they shot back against his head and his eyes opened automatically. She became silent quicker then it took to flip on a light switch.

"I'm sorry," Kagome apologized in a whisper, feeling bad that she'd woken him up.

Inuyasha narrowed his eyes slightly and looked around, having a slightly sinking feeling when he established that while he was sleeping he had begun to cuddle with Kagome. What brought him out of his thoughts was shocking.

His eyes opened rather wide the instant the girl he was holding buried her head contently into his haori and murmured, "You're really warm…" and sighed. "I'm sorry I was messing with your ears again. They tickle."

Not quite understanding her, he raised his ears again and lifted his head off of her shoulder. "Well, I didn't let you fall and you didn't toss me out of the tree."

"Yup. I guess we both kept our promises. And I didn't get cold either," She reported happily, looking up at him. "I think I like sleeping in trees. I can understand why you'd want to sleep in them." Again, she snuggled into him for more warmth when a breeze blew by, bringing a blush out of both of them.

"I can't… seem to figure you out. I don't get you Kagome… not since you lost your memory at least," Inuyasha added for more clarity. His odd comment brought Kagome to look up at him, but he didn't meet her gaze for a moment.

"Hm? How do you mean?"

Another gust picked up, blowing both of their hair together to the left side and Kagome shivered a little. Inuyasha felt this and held her tighter against him, trying to cover as much of her as possible and keep her warm.

"First you freak out when you see me, then you obsess over my ears – which, by the way, aren't that exciting, really, after that you freak out about me having claws. Even after that you start warming up to all of us some more, and last night you were mostly acting like you used to, and now you're being more content with me then you used to be. I think Kinenrosu did more than just steal your memory from you."

Now that she thought about it, Inuyasha had a point.

"Well, I'm sorry. It's not my fault if my opinion on you guys keeps changing. Besides, I keep thinking about things and they make me feel different."

Whoops. Kagome felt like an idiot. Though she hadn't directly mentioned the nature of her thoughts, she had still brought it up. It was that stupid, relaxed, safe feeling aura she got when around him. She cursed it silently.

"Huh? What thoughts?"

"You know, what do I have to lose from telling you? Well, basically everything that Miroku keeps saying and the way you and Sango act about it. I keep wondering about our relationship before my memory was altered. He makes it out as if we were in love or even deeper than that, and then you keep acting so protective all the time. It makes me kind of consider that we might have been more than just any old pair of friends. Maybe a little more than just friends," She said truthfully and quietly, not meeting his gaze and looking away.

Not quite what Inuyasha had been expecting. "I already told you. I don't think we were more than just friends Kagome," he said, again with that weird tone in his voice, and the more Kagome thought about it, the more it kept sounding like disappointment.

"That's my point exactly! You keep saying its nothing, or that you think that it was nothing, and so does Sango. But I'm not as sure as you two are! I plan to find out, too, even if no one tells me." Her tone was bold and unwavering, and her eyes shown with her inner determination.

"Then good luck with that. I highly doubt anyone knew anything on that subject before the incident anyways. Not even you or me. You should just drop it. The whole memory thing screwed everything up."

Kagome shrugged and leaned back into his grasp, the two of them remaining silent. Her eyes reflected watery light as the sun began to rise in the sky.


	6. Forest of Reckoning

**Disclaimer- Dear Mister/Missus/Miss Reader, I regretfully inform you that you have not been accepted as the owner of Inuyasha… and, regardless, neither have I. **

_Chapter Six, The Forest of Reckoning_

Miroku was stirred into waking up, not quite knowing the reason. Inuyasha and Kagome had been talking, which was really why he had woken, but they had stopped a minute or so earlier. He figured that since he was the only one up that it would be a perfect opportunity to grope Sango.

From his perspective at least, he crept 'silently' towards the slumbering demon slayer, being sure to avoid Shippo and Kirara at all costs. Miroku amazingly succeeded in not waking either the demons or the slayer up, and had drawn right up next to Sango. With the grin already forming on his lips, he extended his arm and hand.

"Don't even think about it Miroku," A voice came.

The monk froze, arm still halfway outstretched. Slowly, he retracted his arm and looked up. Inuyasha was giving him a distasteful look. It appeared to Miroku that Kagome was still sleeping until she shifted a bit and looked over and down to meet his gaze. Seeing both Inuyasha and Kagome together and remembering how quiet they had been, the lecher of a monk couldn't resist a comment to lighten the mood.

"Ah, Inuyasha. I see that someone is a tad bit overly content with himself."

Kagome sharply inhaled when she was pulled even tighter into the half demon by protective and tensed arms.

"Yeah, maybe I don't have anything wrong with the morning. What's it to ya?"

Before Miroku could hope to respond, Kagome freed one of her hands and grasped and yanked a fistful of Inuyasha's hair, off balancing him. He was barley able to keep the both of them in the tree but still managed.

"Hey, what was that for!"

"See? That's what I was talking about exactly: He's got his weird hint-type thingies and you have your overly defensive and overly protective response to it. They don't click together in more than a few different ways, you know," She said stubbornly.

Once again, Miroku made to comment, but a drowsy Sango cut him off by murmuring, "Hm? What doesn't click with what?" She pulled her legs in and stood up after a moment, still half asleep.

Kagome blinked and suddenly looked perturbed. "Nothing. I'll talk to you about it later. I want down!" Kagome demanded in a loud enough voice to wake Shippo and Kirara.

Sango and Miroku exchanged funny glances with each other about Kagome's attitude. They expected Inuyasha to entirely ignore her, but they both took a step back when their two friends came gliding down perfectly, landing without a sound.

"Go talk to your friend about that stuff if you want. I got better things to be worrying about. Like getting your damn memory back! I can't believe you aren't even worried about that Kagome."

It was at this time that Myoga returned, probably from finding breakfast for himself. He had heard their conversation for a little while now and was able to enter it.

"Master Inuyasha. I think, perhaps, what you need to do is simply calm down. It's too early to start fighting. Everything was fine last night. Try not to ruin it!"

Inuyasha narrowed his eyes, setting down Kagome and walking away from her towards Myoga, who was hopping up and down yet again. Growling slightly, Inuyasha snatched the flea out of the air with two claws and held him face level.

"I'm not ruining anything, and I don't care. Kagome can stay and talk to you people as much as she wants. In the mean time, I intend to find this Kinenrosu and kill her and smash that stupid orb thing you were talking about. You can follow me if you want, but I'm not waiting."

With that, Inuyasha dropped Myoga carefully then turned to look at the group, waiting to listen to their stupid reasons for him not to leave, and they didn't let him down.

"You can't be serious, can you? Kagome has a right to want to take this slow. This is probably very emotional for her; things like this can't be rushed so harshly. Maybe you forget that she really has lost her memory," Sango said heatedly.

"I think I'm the only one here who really cares that she HAS lost her memory, and I ain't wasting anymore time. Like I said, you can follow me now if you want, but I'm not gonna put this off and risk that damn demon leaving to go somewhere else and have some more 'fun'."

Kagome frowned and opened her mouth to speak. However, by the time she had started talking, Inuyasha had leapt forward along the path they had been traveling the previous day, disappearing at a rapid speed.

"Wait!" She cried, stepping forward, ready to run after him but feeling a firm arm grab her shoulder and restrain her from going anywhere. She spun around angrily to face Miroku dead on.

"Do not go after him, Kagome. Inuyasha will probably be back within the hour. I think it would be best to wait at least that long and see if he comes back. In the mean time, I'm sure breakfast would not hurt."

The schoolgirl sized him up but sighed after only a minute. He had a point and Kagome had to admit it, considering Inuyasha had already breached the tree line and was well out of their sight by the time she had looked away from Miroku. Kagome busied herself with making the group food and watching the others eat until the hour elapsed.

But he didn't come back at the end of an hour, an hour and a half, or even two hours. By that time Kagome was convinced Inuyasha had definitely meant what he said and was planning on going after the demon alone. Miroku and Sango had begun discussing the problems Inuyasha and Kagome were having, which brought a bit of water to her eyes.

Kagome was sitting about ten feet away from them, and they thought she could not hear. It was true that it was difficult to hear, but she still heard everything… things she had wondered, things she hadn't known, and things she probably could have done without knowing.

Shippo, innocent as ever, came up next to her. After about thirty minutes of Miroku, Sango, and at some points Myoga talking, Kagome was sitting with her legs to one side, looking down. She blinked when she saw the little kitsune and smiled slightly when he climbed onto her lap comfortably, telling her it would be okay, and tossing her into the memory of what she had heard.

_She had sat down after the first hour and a half was gone, staring out towards the trees, wondering where the red clothed half demon had gotten off to and feeling responsible, hoping nothing happened to him. _

_Sango and Miroku pulled up next to each other, giving her glances behind her back and Sango had said in low tones, "Do you think the two of them would be better off if they'd both admitted their love for each other before this?"_

_Kagome's first instinct was to turn around sharply and ask questions but knew that they wouldn't talk about it if they actually knew she was listening. So she sat silently, staring off into the forest but straining her ears and attention to catch everything the monk and slayer were saying behind her back._

"_I highly doubt it. Inuyasha is still hung up over Kikyo to some degree, even if he does love Kagome. He'd never admit it for one. Two, even if he did he'd still think about the dead priestess, and three, if the two had gone so far as to do that, Inuyasha would be more torn if she lost her memories."_

"_I guess you're right Miroku… But he can't still love Kikyo right? She DID die over fifty years ago. He realizes all she is is walking earth and a spirit trapped inside of it?"_

"_Hmm… that's a good question, and I wish I knew the answer. Inuyasha probably acknowledges that its over with Kikyo, but I don't think he really wants to. And what of our Kagome?"_

_There had been a pause, undoubtedly, in which both had looked over at her. _

"_She would have to admit her feelings for him too. It would be a miracle for one of them to, but to have both?" Miroku added, slightly quieter than before._

"_But it's so obvious! Why can… could… neither of them see it themselves? Everyone else saw it! Besides, they make a cute couple and I know that they know it. I think Kagome may even be starting to get the same feelings she had before."_

"_And a good thing too. Perhaps in this state she's more prone to expressing emotions than she was, and given her state, perhaps Inuyasha will have become at least a little softer towards her. I know it doesn't appear it now, considering he just ran off on his own, but he did it with her well being at heart, like he always used to and always will," Miroku said knowingly._

_Then they had changed subjects, leaving the girl to her thoughts._

Kagome blinked a bit of the water from her eyes, still debating if what they had said had been true or not.

"Shippo, don't you think it's about time we went after Inuyasha? It has to have been around three hours already and there's no sign of him coming back. I don't want to feel guilty if something bad happens to him."

The child looked up and smiled at Kagome. "Inuyasha is really stubborn about everything, and I think he'll be okay by himself. He fights off hundreds of demons to keep all of us safe and he hasn't really lost a battle yet. Don't go feeling bad because of him Kagome, he's just a big idiot!"

She laughed, hugging the young fox demon happily and looking around. However, whether it was her fault or not, she wasn't going to let it be. He hadn't come back and Miroku had suggested they wait an hour, and that time was well up. She stood and marched off towards the rest of the group, ready to demand they leave at once.

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"Damn that stupid girl, and that stupid monk… stupid flea! Can't they see we can't afford to waste any time?" Inuyasha growled this aloud to himself and he dashed through the trees, sometimes leaping from one tree to another, sometimes running on the ground.

He had not stopped voicing his anger for all of the three hours he had been traveling, still following the slight scent and Myoga's directions. In fact, if anything, he was only getting more and more agitated at the others for not following and not listening.

'I bet they don't even care about Kagome's condition!' He thought to himself, picking up a sudden, strong spike in the scent in one place before it quickly died down. Inuyasha made sure the smell was no illusion before following after it. The smell had basically stuck to Myoga's directions, which somehow didn't surprise him.

It was probably another fifteen minutes before he noticed something out of place that marked he was entering the territory of the butterfly demon he was tracking. Perhaps it was the awkwardness of the air, of the lack of motion from anything but plants, but the place just started to feel unnatural. The wind seemed to be carrying the remnants of something multicolored (the dust that fell from the wings of all butterfly demons) and made Inuyasha feel slightly lightheaded, but only for a minute or two.

The set of mountains that were near each other, especially the larger one, seemed to be giving off some sort of untraceable aura. Mount Amekumo was releasing a sort of… calming- he supposed that was the right word- aura that seemed to be very unbecoming of your everyday evil demon.

"That bastard… I know where you are now and you're gonna die…." He muttered venomously.

By now, Kirara had taken the duty of bringing Sango and Kagome quickly towards Inuyasha. Initially the entire group was to leave for him together, but Miroku wisely suggested that it would be best if Kagome caught up to him as soon as possible, and they would come later.

It was by that logic that Kirara was now racing quicker than she had ever raced before, which was definitely saying something. The cold air caused by the rapidly passing wind was giving Kagome a migraine, but she didn't complain. She wanted to find Inuyasha and most of all… just ask him if what she'd heard Miroku and Sango say was true. She had to know for sure, to know she wasn't hallucinating things and playing tricks with herself. Most importantly, to make sure that everyone _else_ hadn't been playing tricks with her.

Sango noticed Kagome's tenseness and turned to look at her friend. With concern seeping through her voice she inquired, "Kagome, are you okay?"

"Sure," the girl said slowly, looking around at the blur that was the world, "I'm just really worried about Inuyasha."

The demon slayer smiled as warmly as possible. "I'm sure he's entirely fine. We'll probably catch up to him in under half of an hour. Inuyasha probably wasn't going very fast because he had to find Kinenrosu, who he said left only a very faint smell. Luckily, Kirara only has to track his smell, which is plenty more fresh and therefore greatly stronger than the smell he's tracking."

No one spoke for a couple moments. Kagome accepted that what Sango had pointed out was true. "Sango, if you're right about that…" She trailed off, waiting for her friend to look back at her again, "… Okay, you probably don't think I was listening, but when you were talking with Miroku about Inuyasha and me… Were you being honest about that, too?"

Silence. Sango was apparently uncomfortable right now with the subject and countered, "I talk to Miroku about you and Inuyasha all the time. What do you mean?"

"Don't pretend to be innocent. You were talking about how it was 'so obvious we loved each other', and things like that. I know what I heard!" Kagome's voice increased in volume as she spoke, already starting to get annoyed.

"From my opinion, and I'm only telling you this because you have no memory, I think he did. And I'm practically positive you thought of him the same way. You'll have to ask him yourself. Don't tell me that's why you really wanted to hurry to go find him!" She said exasperatedly and Kirara changed direction a little.

Kagome shook her head honestly, but never met the slayer's eyes.

Having put up a nearly physical wall of awkwardness between the two people, the next twenty minutes were fairly quite, the only noises being the wind blowing past them and the sounds of Kirara's strides and constant sniffing of her nose. At the twenty-minute mark, Kagome shot a hand to her forehead and groaned in pain.

"Kagome!" Sango exclaimed worriedly. Kirara ran perhaps twenty more strides then fell to a halt. "Kagome, are you okay? Are you in pain?"

The person in question nodded with minimal effort and scanned the forest with narrowed and suspicious eyes. "I feel," She explained, "like there's something bad here. Like… like we passed a barrier or seal of something…"

Understandingly, Sango helped Kagome to dismount and Kirara shrank to her smallest form. They could feel the new tension in the air too. 'I wish Inuyasha were here,' both women thought at the exact same time.

Kagome walked around, looking at some of the trees and the ground, rather confused. Nothing seemed distinctly out of place, and yet it was obvious that something was. It also was obvious that it wasn't anything small, like a cat that was best friends with a mouse… this was big. She felt her skin start to form frightened goose bumps and the hair on the back of her neck stand up. Something was seriously wrong.

"Sango… Sango, can you feel that?" Kagome said aloud, staring into the tree to her left. There seemed to be a source of the energy that way.

"I do." Sango shifted her weapon and drew up to Kagome. "We have to go check it out. If we're lucky we might find Inuyasha, assuming he felt it too." The friends nodded and started walking, Kirara trailing at their feet.

The demon slayer was taking an extreme attention to detail; looking around at certain trees and investigating markings on the ground that Kagome didn't even feel the slightest bit threatened by.

It was when Sango had paused to dig out an abandoned burrow that Kagome felt something flash in her mind. Kagome couldn't possibly know that it was the presence of a jewel shard that caused it, so she said nothing specific. "Um… I think there's something that way. I sense something," She said rather stupidly, pointing to the direction Sango was currently facing.

"Then let's go. Kirara," Sango called, and almost instantly the cat appeared next to her in its transformed state. After mounting in one fluid motion, Sango helped Kagome get on and they took off.

Once the trio was airborne again, Kagome couldn't help but wonder where Inuyasha had gotten off to now. She would have done anything right at this moment to know he was okay. 'I'd even…'

"WATCH OUT!" Sango cried, bringing Kagome sharply from her thoughts. Kirara shot down and Kagome yelped from the sudden movement, only now noticing what Sango had.

They had, quite literally, been engulfed in a dark cloud. It was a purple-black and had sprung from nowhere. Kirara hissed and growled dangerously and Sango readied her hirakotsu. Having nothing to do, Kagome just tried to keep herself calm, wondering what on earth was going on.

After a moment of silence, the cloud disappeared in a flash, to be replaced by a swarm of lesser demons.

Screaming in terror, Kagome clung to Kirara as the cat dipped towards the ground so Sango and her could fight better. Kagome had never seen a demon before (as far as her current mindset was concerned) and the mass of the flying worm-like creatures was intimidating.

She didn't need Sango to ask her to get off and stay safe when Kirara's paws touched the ground, and she did so on instinct. Kagome gasped with awe when Sango hurled her weapon expertly, slicing through several of the demons perfectly before returning to its owner.

"There's one –!" Kagome began to shout, seeing one of the demons coming around for the slayer from behind, but the demon cat leapt and bit its neck and the thing fell limp and dead to the ground.

"Where… Did these… COME from?" Sango said between breaths, smashing in some of the skulls of the demons that came too near to her. "These normally appear with Naraku. What's the deal?" She tossed the weapon once more, and it complied with killing a grand total of nine of their attackers. As Kirara pounced from one to the other, Sango turned to the frightened girl behind her. "Kagome, what was the thing you sensed? Was it a sacred jewel shard?"

Kagome shrugged and shrieked as a demon came to get Sango from the side, but Sango brought her weapon down through its neck, decapitating it.

"I don't know! I don't know what it was. I just want these things to go away, whatever they are!" She wailed somewhat pitifully, thinking this was all her fault.

Sango sighed as Kirara came crashing down through several of the oncoming demons. They started their slaying again, doing their best not to be overcome, but slowly and surly failing. These demons seemed to have no end.

"INUYAAAASSSHAAAA! WHERE ARE YOU!" Kagome screamed at the top of her lungs, the lack of air by the time she was done yelling almost caused her to faint on the spot.

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Perhaps four miles away, Inuyasha was still walking slow and determined towards the source of the horrible and awkward aura he had sensed. That was, of course, until he noticed a distant cloud in the sky that grew very, very fast and became very, very dark. He would have had to be a complete idiot to know it wasn't a regular cloud.

"What the hell is that thing?" He growled to himself, getting that felling you get when something bad is about to happen. There was another strong pulse of the unknown energy, and the half demon felt completely torn between what to do. Investigate that cloud, or follow the aura towards its heart and hopefully find Kinenrosu?

After weighing the two options, he decided cloud. Even if Inuyasha couldn't tell why he suddenly wanted to go check out that cloud more than the aura, he never really was a person to try and understand unnecessary things. Going just as quick as before, Inuyasha raced off full speed towards the place the black-purple misty object was forming rapidly.

He didn't like how quickly it was growing at all, and growled under his breath as he leapt from tree to tree. Within a few minutes had had covered a little more than half the distance, and at that point the cloud vanished before his eyes, and he halted abruptly.

"What the hell…?" The half demon murmured, staring intently where the cloud had been. Then, in a split second, a swarm of demons took the place of the cloud, seemingly chasing something he couldn't quite make out from here. "I've gotta bad feeling about this…" Inuyasha growled threateningly, dashing forward again as the demon's chased whatever it was they were pursuing towards the ground.

'Damn it,' he though dryly, 'What ever they're going after probably doesn't stand a chance. What the hell are they chasing?' In another minute or two another of the four miles was gone and the wind was beginning to shift, bringing familiar but clouded new scents his way. Inuyasha was just about to place who the scents belonged to, when a scream reached his ears.

"INUYAASHAAA! WHERE ARE YOU?"

And he could have collapsed. What was Kagome doing out here? Not only that, but she was in trouble and being attacked by demons! The growl in his throat increased as his hand moved unconsciously towards the sword at his waist.

"I'm coming Kagome…" He whispered frantically, trying to increase his speed by any means possible. The thick scent of blood filled the air, and Inuyasha knew at once that Sango and Kirara were definitely there helping her. "Hold on just a little longer," Inuyasha begged quietly.

In one more minute he could start to hear the sound of enraged demons, Kirara's growls, and Sango's battle call and attacks. Inuyasha pulled the tetsusaiga out perfectly, his eyes catching a glimpse of fire; obviously it was Kirara dashing about up ahead.

Not even ten seconds passed and he leapt purposefully into the clearing where Sango and Kirara were waging war against the numerous demon attackers.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome screamed happily. She would have jumped up, run over, and hugged him if there weren't a mass of demons attacking them right now… but, of course, there were.

"Inuyasha, it's good you showed up," Sango said hurriedly, smashing in another worm's skull. After killing it, Kirara jumped to the side and Sango did the same, leaving some space for what they new was going to come.

Flashing his eyes dangerously at the demons, Inuyasha took his sword in both hands, raising it (a bit dramatically, in Kagome's opinion) over his head. Kagome gasped the second he yelled, "Wind Scar!" and brought the blade down with a tremendous swipe. She had never seen this attack before, and was utterly surprised when the blast of energy and wind erupted from the blade.

Before her eyes, the hoards of demons that had proven such a problems for even the demon slayer and her cat helper were dissolved in the waves of the attack, killed as they moved forward. Every single one fell in death at its turn, and Kagome sucked in her breath as the light died down.

Inuyasha stood still, breathing angrily, sword still resting by its tip on the ground. Blood fell like a light rain, half-melted bodies dropped with horrible sounds. Sango, Inuyasha, and Kirara either didn't care or just didn't show it. Kagome couldn't figure out which.

"You came Inuyasha!" Kagome yelped happily, running forward from her hiding place. Hearing her voice, Inuyasha turned but had basically no time to think before Kagome leapt happily at him and pulled 'her' hanyou into a tight embrace. "You actually came!"

"Huh?" He said aloud in the most confused tone he had ever used. "Kagome, what're you talking about?" Why on earth was she so happy? What was this whole hugging business about? "Are you okay?" Inuyasha asked curiously, looking down at the girl who had refused to let go of him.

Blinking a bit, Kagome looked up to meet his eyes. "I'm… I'm fine," She whispered softly, immediately crushing her face back into his shirt and squeezing tighter.

"Kagome, Inuyasha! Sango! What has been going on here? Shippo and I spotted demons and heard a battle of some sort," A new voice arose.

In a moment the monk and young kitsune stepped into the sight of the rest of the group. Shippo was dangling off of Miroku's shoulder, but Miroku didn't mind at this point. The pair looked from one person to the other, the blood that littered the ground, then back to their friends.

"I see you were victorious. I also see that you two have succeeded in locating Inuyasha. Kagome, you seem quite happy about this…" Miroku trailed off with a horribly perverted tone in his voice, grinning terribly at the clasp between Kagome and Inuyasha.

Inuyasha growled under his breath something about wanting to murder a lecher, and Kagome laughed, letting go after a second more. Sango nodded with her own smile, but it was obvious she'd rather be hitting Miroku over the head for his smart comment.

"_So it would seem…_"

"What was that?" Shippo screamed. Sango jumped and prepared to throw her weapon, Miroku held out his staff, and Inuyasha thrust Kagome safely behind his back.

Different colored grains of an unknown powder started to fall gently, deteriorating before it ever reached the ground. As if they all seemed to understand the voice was coming from above at the same time, they looked up.

Some thirty feet above their heads, a fairly humanistic body being held aloft by large, glowing wings, was looking down at them with an amused face. With every wing beat, more of the colorful dust was released to fall to the ground. The creature seemed harmless at first, but Inuyasha was keen enough to be able to recognize the odd, almost scent like thing he had been following for the past couple of days.

"You're Kinenrosu, aren't you?" The half demon said accusingly, getting ready to attack.

Surprisingly enough, the demon answered in her misty, monotone voice, "_Yes, I am. And I know who you people are. I've been watching you from my den. I have to admit; you are perhaps the most entertaining of all my victims yet! And the strongest._"

Every single one of the people on the ground did a double take. "You… You are turning yourself in that easily? No avoiding the truth? What sort of game is this?" Sango demanded crossly, shifting her hirakotsu a little into a more battle-ready position.

"_Of course. I have to say, I did not expect you all to defeat my little memory-altered minions. You're the first, like I said before. Do not expect me to repeat myself again._"

"You aren't gonna be able to repeat yourself if you're dead!" Inuyasha threatened, raising the tetsusaiga.

Before he got the blade above his head, Miroku cried out, "No Inuyasha! Remember what Myoga said about how to defeat her. You must not kill her yet!"

Even as Inuyasha glared angrily, knowing there was practically nothing he could do, Kinenrosu blinked and cocked her head, the light around her body growing some. "_Kill me? You mean to get you two your memories back_?" An angry set of glares, all saying 'No duh!' met her. "_You don't need to bother trying to eliminate me. I've seen enough. It's only fair you two get your minds back in position._"

The butterfly demon brought both her palms out. The moment they started to spark, Miroku prepared to throw sutras and Inuyasha was ready to push Kagome aside to safety. One could only imagine their surprise when Kinenrosu thrust her palms down to face the ground and released a beam of pure white light into the ground. The ground lit up in a straight path towards Kagome and Inuyasha.

The second the glow reached their feet it disappeared entirely, right into thin air. Kagome fell limply to one side. Inuyasha swayed for a moment but straightened instantaneously. "KAGOME!" He yelled, grabbing her from the ground and pulling her into his protection. She only moaned lightly and Inuyasha glared up at Kinenrosu. "What did you do to her!" Inuyasha bellowed.

"_Nothing. I just gave the both of you your memories. You deserve them. Sorry, I have no time to tarry here_." She gave a spark with her fingers that they all ignored, getting annoyed with her flashiness. "_Have fun with your minds; its not like they were there to begin with_!"

"OH NO YOU DON'T!" Screamed an angry Sango, and she quickly propelled her boomerang, but Kinenrosu was gone in a flash of bluish-green light.

No one liked the feeling in the air. There was no way any demon in their right mind would surrender like that, even if they were crazy. It went against every instinct that a demon had hardwired into his or her body. None of it made any sense. Kinenrosu had to have done something to Kagome's mind. Right?

Kagome moaned again and shifted in Inuyasha's grasp, bringing every single eye onto her.

"Kagome!" Shippo said worriedly, bounding away from Miroku and towards his surrogate mother. Kirara and Sango dashed forward in a burst of energy, and Miroku made his way calmly but surely.

Inuyasha thought he felt Kagome shiver and pulled her closer, trying to keep her warm. "Kagome, are you okay?" He asked her carefully, shaking her body a little. "Answer me!"

Weakly, the limp girl stretched her head. Those around her fell silent, waiting to see what was going on. "Inu… yasha… Inuyasha is that… is that you?" She managed to say in what appeared to be a forced breath. "I'm… sorry I made you guys go through… all of this… I love you Inuyasha…" Kagome managed to get out before sighing and having her body go entirely dull again.

Instantly, Shippo wailed. "Kagome! She's dead, she'd dead!" The little fox demon ran on the ground in a circle around the others. "She's dead, she's dead, she's dead, she's-!" Miroku gently put his arm out into the frantic kitsune's path and brought him to a stop.

"No Shippo, Kagome's just fainted is all. Only sleeping, you could say. Kagome is entirely fine, don't you worry."

Sango gave Shippo a smile, but looked oddly back at Kagome and Inuyasha. Inuyasha didn't move at all; he barely dared to breath. Had… had Kagome said what he thought she said? He wasn't hallucinating, was he?

Feeling that something was still unsettled, Miroku looked back up as well. Only now did he smile stupidly, allowing Kagome's words to sink in.

"Did she… did Kagome just say…?"

Sango and Miroku nodded happily, humungous smiles on their faces (of course, Miroku's wasn't entirely sincere). They couldn't have been happier to hear at least one of them admit to their affections. Taking the awkward silence into his own advantage, Shippo leapt up.

"Hey Inuyasha, does this mean the you and Kagome are going to 'be together'? That's what Miroku was talking about while we were coming here."

Absolute silence. The monk in question raised his hands and shook them, taking a couple steps away from the agitated hanyou.

"Miroku was talking about _what_?" Inuyasha asked, starting to twitch. If he hadn't been holding Kagome he would have reached over and hit both Miroku and Shippo on the head, but they were lucky this time around.

"Nothing, nothing! It's not what you think Inuyasha, honestly. I was simply telling Shippo it would be better off if you and Kagome were together. It is so obvious that you two have been in love with each other for the longest of times! I mean nothing more by it, you have to believe me."

"Just what the hell are you trying to say?" Their half demon said threateningly, glaring pure death at Miroku, daring him to come within kicking range.

Now it was Sango's turn to make things more uncomfortable for the group. "Inuyasha, I entirely agree that our little pervert probably had other intentions behind his chat with Shippo, but… does this mean you're denying the fact that you love Kagome? Are you saying you really don't love her?"

Inuyasha turned to look at her, not quite able to find the right words. "I… uh… not that… um… I don't… It's not like I… not that I don't… uh…"

"I know what you mean Inuyasha. You may as well tell Kagome how you feel, and maybe everything will be better. Now is not the time to feel horrible about things. Kagome has her memory back and she admitted that she loves you. What's to worry about that?" the demon slayer offered helpfully.

'Everything,' Inuyasha thought, looking back down at Kagome. He hugged her closer. "How do you even know she meant to say it? We won't know if Kagome is in her right mind or not until she wakes up. How long do you think it'll take?"

Sango shrugged and Shippo cocked his head, not even bothering trying to answer.

"I wouldn't worry about it," Miroku said calmly, but being careful to remain out of Inuyasha's immediate reach. "I have a suggestion." Everyone looked towards him, and even Shippo wore something close to a glare, knowing he had something bad to say. "Why don't you just take Kagome off with you somewhere? That way when she wakes up…"

In a domino reaction, Sango whacked Miroku over the head with her weapon then walked over and slapped him, and Inuyasha rapidly took Kagome in only one arm and hit Miroku over the head with the other, growling and refusing to look up when he said, "You're a pervert, did you know that? There is no way I'm ever-!"

"I merely wished that you be there to see if she was okay without us interfering. I never even let THAT particular thought cross my mind, but now that you mention it… Sango, Inuyasha, that's an amazing suggestion!" And, as could only be expected, Miroku got hit three times in the exact same manner as before.

"I'll go with the first thing. Sango, Miroku, I'll come back and get you when Kagome wakes up, okay?" Inuyasha asked, looking more towards Sango than Miroku. The slayer nodded encouragingly and strapped her weapon safely into place over her shoulder. She gave a look that seemed to say 'Stay safe,' then grabbed Miroku by the arm, dragging him off.

Shippo gave Inuyasha a worried look. "It'll be okay Kagome," He whispered under his breath before bounding off with Kirara. Nodding to himself, Inuyasha made sure Kagome was secure and sound in his arms then dashed off in the other direction, making sure there'd be some distance between them and the bloodied up ground where the demons had been killed. He could only imagine the number of sits Kagome would give him if he let her wake up next to that.

Fifteen minutes run from the clearing, Inuyasha laid Kagome gently down under the shade of a small tree, carefully lowering her head. If it weren't for the fact that he knew Kagome was in a horrible state, she would have appeared peacefully at rest.

Inuyasha marveled at her for a moment or so before sitting down, determined to protect her if anything came by. She groaned a little and shivered, and right away Inuyasha was up and next to her. Kagome didn't make any more movement after that and left Inuyasha disappointed. But it hit him because of that; Kagome would probably benefit from some extra warmth for the time being.

Silent as mist, Inuyasha removed his outer haori and softly place it over Kagome, saddened somewhat that she had no reaction to the gesture. The half demon sat back down next to her, looking around, daring something to come out and attack them.

Kagome didn't show any signs of improving after fifteen more minutes had passed, and still was no more hopeful when a total of forty-five minutes had elapsed. With every minute (Inuyasha hated to admit) he became more and more anxious about what Kinenrosu could have done to Kagome that they'd never know about. For all they knew she could have placed a curse on Kagome that might be slowly killing her. Anything was possible.

So, without hope, Inuyasha kept sitting soundless and motionless. The only thing to keep him occupied were his thoughts, which- considering there was no one around to hear them- he dared say out loud.

"What did Kagome mean by saying she loved me? She couldn't have been sane when she said that… It's just wishful thinking," he admitted to himself. "Kagome's got no reason to think like that by herself… does she?"

It grew quiet again as he went over this from every aspect. Kagome hadn't only told him she loved him, but that she was sorry for putting them all through this. He himself could now perfectly recall the night at the well. Inuyasha could remember hearing Kinenrosu saying they shouldn't fear her and that she didn't want to fight. He remembered Kagome feeling weak and them sleeping next to each other by the well. He even remembered the exact version he had has memories changed to… Inuyasha knew perfectly well that the battle scene he had believed to be the truth was now just useless, and seemed only to be a dream.

If he had his memories set straight by the blast of light, it made sense that Kagome had hers corrected too. If she had apologized for putting them into such a tedious endeavor, it meant she was thinking like she used to; it meant she had gotten her memories back. But if she'd gotten them back that meant she was entirely aware of what she was saying, which would mean she honestly meant she loved him. Didn't it?

"It's too damn confusing!" Inuyasha burst out in rage, hitting himself once over the head. The unfortunate hanyou had never done this much serious thinking in his life. "Even if she does love me- which is impossible- do I even love her?"

'What are you talking about?' A voice in his head practically screamed at him. 'What kind of question is that supposed to be?' And he couldn't argue.

"I guess I do love her then…" He mumbled, defeated, looking over at Kagome's still form. "Maybe Sango's right… Maybe I should tell her when she wakes up." Inuyasha stared at her for a few minutes, barely blinking. With his sensitive ears he was able to hear her unconscious stomach growl, and Inuyasha could only grin. "I guess you're hungry wench."

He looked in all directions and took extreme care in scenting the wind. There were no ominous smells lurking around on the breeze at all, which would give him some time to leave Kagome alone. Inuyasha got up and said stupidly, "Wait here wench. I'll be back with some food."

Remembering the book bag he had seen back at the clearing now filled with demon corpses, Inuyasha stood and rushed off to go retrieve it. Kagome still had food in there, he was positive.

Without having to worry about Kagome's comfort while he ran, Inuyasha was able to make the journey twice as quick as before, leaping soundly into the deserted clearing only about nine minutes after his departure. Looking around for the yellow bag Kagome treasured so much, he found it propped against the tree its owner had originally been hiding next to. He quickly grabbed it.

Miroku, Sango, Shippo, and Kirara had gone off together and left a strong trail. Thankfully they weren't in the clearing anymore or they'd unquestionably ask what he was doing there and if Kagome was okay.

With the book bag firmly in hand, Inuyasha raced back along the exact same path towards Kagome, going quicker than before just in case something bad had happened while he was gone.

Seven minutes later he skidded to a stop next to Kagome, who was still lying peacefully but deathly still beneath the tree, not having moved even an inch. Sighing with relief, Inuyasha put the book bag down on the other side of the tree trunk and took his place yet again, looking Kagome over, thankful that her breathing was still normal. After twenty minutes of nothingness, Inuyasha started to talk out loud again.

"I'm sorry Kagome… this is all my fault. If I hadn't been so stupid about going to bring you back from your era nothing would have ever happened to you. Your memory would be fine, you wouldn't be out cold, and you would never have said you loved me… Not that I really cared or anything… In fact, if you really meant it, I'm not angry at all. You were probably just confused when you said that. It's not like it really matters. Besides if you did really say what you wanted to, then I don't know what I'm worrying about. It's not like I hate you…" Inuyasha trailed off and looked up at the tree. "… I think I actually love you, too…"

"Do you mean it?"

He could have jumped clear across the forest. Inuyasha faltered and felt a jolt of something run through his body and he tensed, spinning his head to stare at Kagome. She was wincing lightly as she tried to sit up but kept her eyes on him the entire time.

"K-Kagome! I… you were supposed to be… you didn't… did you hear…?" He stuttered in a panic. Inuyasha felt like dropping over dead when she slowly nodded her head. It looked like she was holding back a blush. "You don't… I mean… I think," the overcome half demon managed to get out. Kagome blinked and looked like he had let her down and started to look away. He hid his eyes under his hair and said, "Yeah. I did. I meant all of it."

Kagome said nothing and stared at him, but Inuyasha wouldn't have been able to tell anyway. He wouldn't look over at her. He was able to picture her laughing at him for ever thinking he could be allowed to love her and for her to say she hadn't meant anything before at all. In fact, Inuyasha feared her saying it; hoped she wouldn't, but couldn't deny that it wasn't hugely possible for her to.

At this point he was determined he'd never look up to see her again, but his eyes snapped open the second the smell of diluted salt carried over to his nose. Tears; she was crying.

Fearing that he'd not only degraded her with his words but they had actually brought her into such sorrow that she felt the need to cry, Inuyasha at once snapped his head up to see her, feeling horrible that he could have made her so depressed. "Kagome! I didn't want to make you cry! You can forget I ever said it, I didn't realize you didn't like me that much."

"You… you idiot!" She said between labored breaths. At first Inuyasha was taken aback by this even more, but after a moment of consideration he could hear the slight laughter to her voice, which only confused him more. Kagome flung herself forward. Inuyasha made to jump away, but she grabbed him and started to cry into his shirt.

"Kagome, I don't understand the mixed signals here. Do you like me or do you hate me?"

Her tears began to stop and she looked up at him sniffling. "I don't like you Inuyasha," Kagome explained plainly and made a weak smile when she saw the utter look of sorrow and distress on her hanyou's face, "I never liked you. I always loved you…" She whispered, shoving her face back into him. "You don't know how long I've dreamed of you saying that!" Even though her words were muffled by Inuyasha's shirt, he understood them perfectly.

For a second he didn't know what to think. He'd just gotten the answer that he'd been wondering about for over the past hour, and it was more than he could have hoped for. Perhaps Inuyasha thought it was just a lie that she was pulling on him, perhaps he thought this was all just some dream he was having; no one could ever know.

Sniffling for the last time, Kagome looked up cautiously at him since he hadn't said anything yet, thinking that she knew it was too good to be true and he hadn't told her the truth.

Inuyasha met her eyes and they stared at each other for about half a minute without saying a word, and then he grabbed her around the waist and pulled her into him, hugging her tightly and surrounding her with their embrace. Knowing she couldn't have refused even if she had wanted to, Kagome sunk willingly into it, enjoying the feel of his arms around her.

The couple remained like that for some time, until Kagome had the memory of her abusing Inuyasha's ears flash into her mind. She (somewhat like Inuyasha) could remember the feel of his ears but only as if it had been dreamt. Warily, Kagome lifted her hands towards his head and swiftly found the objects of desire. Kagome took one ear in each hand and affectionately stroked them like she had never done before.

Exactly the same instant Kagome started to massage his ears, Inuyasha broke apart their hug. He stared at her unbelievingly and she smiled sheepishly, withdrawing her hands and gluing them to her sides.

"I'm sorry… I just had the urge to pet 'um," Kagome told him with an apologetically guilty sound to her voice. She blinked in shock when all Inuyasha did was rest his head on her shoulder, making sure one of his ears lay against her cheek, just like it had when they had both slept in the tree. The action still made it hard for Kagome to hold down a giggle.

"As long as you're fine, I don't care what you do to my ears," Inuyasha said as if she should have known this forever. Smiling like she had won the lottery, Kagome reached over and rubbed the ear that was tickling her. The girl laughed out loud when Inuyasha shoved his head harder into her, enjoying it. Only now she seemed to recall having forced him to the ground and doing the same thing, only that time she had gotten him to growl in pleasure.

After being positive she'd given both ears a good fondling, Kagome stopped and took a moment to appreciate the circumstances. She was sitting on- not next to- Inuyasha, he was allowing her to play with his ears, he was now growling into and nuzzling her shoulder with satisfaction, and both of them had confessed that they loved each other. Could she have even dreamed of it more perfectly?

Noticing that Kagome had stopped, Inuyasha looked up. "Are you okay?' He asked her. Coming out of her daydream she smiled and nodded. Left to the hushed trees, Kagome's stomach growled again and she blushed in embarrassment.

"Here. I got this for you so you wouldn't starve in your weak human body," Inuyasha said casually, reaching over and handing Kagome her book bag.

She put on a sarcastic face and said mockingly, "Oh, thanks," but took her bag from him and scooted off of his lap. Smiling to herself about Inuyasha's continuous watch, Kagome pulled out some of the contents and found she still had a few pieces of fruit left in perfect condition. She offered Inuyasha an apple, which he sniffed but denied, so she ate it herself.

"Hey," Kagome spoke between bites, "Where are Sango and Miroku and the others? I'm pretty sure I remember them being right near me when I passed out." Taking another bite, she looked over at Inuyasha who shrugged.

"They're back a little bit. They told me it would be best to look over you myself and not have them get in the way. I said I'd bring you back to them when you came to. I guess that means now though," He added as an afterthought. Kagome grinned, knowing that it was probably Miroku who suggested Inuyasha take her alone, and likely for a whole different reason that made Kagome blush just thinking about it.

Once Kagome finished her apple, she threw the core off into the trees for nature to deal with. "Then let's go find them. I need to ask Sango and Miroku how they knew about… well, us liking each other." Her comment got no answer from Inuyasha except for a confused face. "Forget about it, you weren't there."  
"Whatever," Inuyasha announced, standing up as Kagome repacked her bag. She finished and hoisted it onto her back, walking over to Inuyasha. He crouched down so she could climb easily onto his back. After she got situated Inuyasha straightened some and locked his arms around Kagome, shooting off without further interruptions.

Kagome rested her head sleepily on Inuyasha's shoulder as they ran, feeling happy and safe all over. She decided that no other sensation in the world could ever amount to the one she was having right now.

The duo soared past the trees at what Kagome thought was the perfect pace, and she snuggled comfortably into Inuyasha some more as the passed the blood ridden clearing some ten minutes later. Another quarter hour of travel and the first sign of their friends could be noted. A loud, distinguished slap filled the sky neatly.

"KEEP YOUR HANDS TO YOURSELF!" Sango shouted irately from somewhere up ahead. Kagome smirked at the regular conversation between the monk and slayer and looked up. In about fifty seconds, Inuyasha jumped up into the trees. The rustling of leaves brought the attention of the group to the hanyou and his companion.

Shippo jumped towards the tree whining, "Kagome! Your back! Your okay," And proceeded in climbing nimbly up the trunk to greet his friends. Inuyasha got onto all fours to get better balance and watched as the little fox demon pounced happily at Kagome and hugged her. "I missed you Kagome!"

Kagome smiled and hugged him back. "I missed you too Shippo! Thanks for taking such good care of me when Kinenrosu took my memories."

"So you really did get all of your memories back? What's something you can tell us that no one else has told you to prove this?" Miroku asked suspiciously, not wanting to take any chances whatsoever.

"Hmmm…" Kagome though about what they had said to her to explain their journey. "I don't think any of you mentioned that it wasKagura who killed off practically all of Kouga's wolf demon tribe at some village and framed Inuyasha, did you? That Kouga is definately followed by his two remaining pack mates Ginta and Hokaku, and has two jewel shards in his legs that make him a really quick runner.Also thatwhen we first met him he had another shard in his arm. Or that Inuyasha wasso jealous over Kouga's affections towards me that the first time we met him, the way Inuyasha acted made me leave to go home and I took Kirara to get back to the well. Not to mention, Inuyasha still as jealous as ever…"

"Am not!"

Sango and Miroku shared a satisfied nod. "You're cured alright. Welcome back Kagome!"

With Kagome clinging tightly to Shippo, Inuyasha leapt carefully from the tree to land on the ground some ten feet from the others. Kagome got off and set Shippo down on the ground with a warm smile. Kirara bounded over and Kagome stroked her head while Sango and Miroku approached. She hugged Sango briefly, and risked hugging Miroku. Thankfully he didn't try anything.

Oddly enough, they didn't really celebrate the return of Kagome's memory. They sat down for the rest of the day and talked about it, shared stories, and Inuyasha and Kagome gave their detailed description of what actually happened with Kinenrosu the first time. Both Kagome and Inuyasha seemed all too capable to avoid what had happened out in the forest, keeping that bit of information strictly to themselves.

When the sun went down Miroku started up a fire.

"So, what are we going to do tomorrow? Get back on jewel hunting schedule or what?" Sango asked curiously, looking between the members of their group. Kagome shrugged.

"I guess. I mean, why not? It's not like anything's stopping us."

They all agreed at least on that and got ready for sleep. Sango and Kirara went over to make a bed next to a tree with Miroku and Shippo exactly opposite of them for… obvious reasons. Strangely enough, not even Miroku questioned when Kagome asked Inuyasha if she could sleep with him in the tree like the previous night, or when he immediately complied and jumped with her up into the safety of the branches.

Those two settled down quickly enough, and Kagome whispered, "There really is nothing stopping us, right?"

"Duh," Came Inuyasha's intelligible response.

They couldn't have possibly been more wrong in their lives.


	7. Not AGAIN

**Disclaimer- It is my duty as (insert impressive title) to inform a/an (insert desired title) that Inuyasha is not a possession of mine. Please, (insert first name), this is hard to accept, but eventually (insert random plural item) will make it okay. **

_Chapter Seven, Not AGAIN!_

Sango finished off the breakfast she had found in Kagome's bag neatly, putting out the fire from the night before with fistfuls of dirt. Miroku was still contently (but half asleep while doing so) chewing on his cup of noodles. Shippo and Kirara had finished eating their meal long before the others and were play-fighting and racing around in circles.

Strangely, Inuyasha and Kagome had made it quite clear they were awake a long time ago but weren't down on the ground with their companions.

"Since Kagome said good morning to us, neither her nor Inuyasha had said another word. I'm not even sure I actually saw them up yet. Have you?"

The monk shook his head carefully, swallowing his mouthful of noodles before lowering the cup. He looked around with cautious eyes, as if someone might be listening to them. "No Sango, I've not seen either of them. In all actuality, we cannot even verify that Inuyasha has woken yet. He hasn't said anything at all. Indeed, maybe those two are just… how shall we say, 'enjoying each other's company?" Miroku took another bite of noodles as Sango glowered at him.

Shippo and Kirara rolled past the two and everyone sighed. If their hanyou and furturistic friends weren't going to come down on their own, Sango was going to find out why. The demon slayer frowned again at Miroku and stood.

"Are you two okay up there? You've been awfully quite since you woke up. Now that I think about it, you haven't even come down for breakfast yet…" Sango voiced her thoughts while walking over to the base of the tree Inuyasha and Kagome were still in. She reached the trunk and looked directly up at her friends. Both of them were still there, barely moved from the previous night, except for one thing…

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Yelled Sango, the sound of her voice breaking both Inuyasha and Kagome apart instantly. Like they had the day before out in the forest, Kagome had been happily fondling both of Inuyasha's ears at the same time, causing the hanyou to growl in content, nuzzle his nose into the junction of her neck and shoulder, and pull her extremely close and tightly into him. This supposed-to-be private moment had not only ended abruptly, but also caused Kagome to blush furiously.

Kagome shifted uncomfortably after she jumped away from Inuyasha. Still, it didn't cancel out the slayer's baffled and shocked expression. In hopes to end any self-made conclusions, the girl apologized, "I'm sorry! We just… It was nothing Sango!"

Even with the mixed up explanation, Sango stared, still stunned. "But you two never said anything to us last night when we were all talking! We never knew you two were together already. When did this happen?" She demanded excitedly, wanting to know all the details.

"None of your business!" Inuyasha said menacingly, warning her to stop before it started. Thank all the gods everywhere and anywhere that Miroku wasn't…

Too late. The 'conversation' between the trio of people had spiked up the monk's interest, and he was walking over towards them with a questioning look on his face. He was, needless to say, surprised when he was able to look up at Kagome and Inuyasha still relatively close to each other and blushing, and was able to make the right (even though perverted) conclusion.

Like mandatory with all weird things, there was an awkward silence in which no one even moved. Sadly enough, Miroku was the one to finally break this chain.

"Congratulations you two! I always knew this would happen someday! I must admit though, I was beginning to wonder if Inuyasha had it in him…"

Inuyasha started growling, getting ready to leap out of the tree and kill that stupid big-mouthed monk and make him curse the day he was born. When he was about to leap, Kagome stuck a hand out in front of him and held him back.

"Don't get so worked up over it… though I'd wish SOMEONE wouldn't have come and brought this whole mess up!" She said, glaring accusingly at Sango.

"Was it… supposed to be a secret?" Sango asked confusedly. Kagome nodded with an even bigger blush than before. "That has to be the most stupid thing I've ever heard before in my life. You two love each other and we all knew it anyways. Why on earth would you want to keep something like that from us? Do you two not trust us or something?"

Kagome shrugged, allowing Inuyasha to pull her into him then jump down from the branch, landing delicately on the ground a couple seconds later. Both shared a look at the question before Inuyasha let Kagome out of his arms.

"Because of him!" Inuyasha growled, pointing a claw irritably at Miroku. The monk in question had a distant expression but an easily recognizable perverted smirk plastered across his face. At least for this one issue they could all agree, not even wanting to imagine what Miroku was thinking…

Shippo walked calmly over and mumbled, "What's all the fuss about? Did something bad happen?"

"No, Shippo," Kagome said, bending down and picking up the kitsune protectively in her arms, "Inuyasha and I kind of… well… I guess you could say we're kind of like how your mom and dad were, only it's with us..."

Miroku and Sango point-blanked. Shippo had understood it the way it was meant to be translated: Inuyasha and Kagome were, in their own way, together. However, Miroku and Sango (having all their knowledge on mates and marriage, whether you were looking at demons or humans, and what they did) did not. Sango even blushed feverishly and had the split second urge to leap at Inuyasha and kill him for doing what she assumed he had done to Kagome. After a moment of consideration, Miroku was still wide eyed but was obviously pleased about it. Kagome and Inuyasha stared between each of them.

"Inuyasha, congratulations! I'm so happy that you took my advice, but I definitely didn't think you had it in you to do THAT! I can't believe Kagome actually consented. Though, I suppose I shouldn't be so surprised… you old dog, you!"

"Inuyasha, how could you even THINK of doing that to Kagome! You should be ashamed of yourself! Where'd you get the nerve to do that after not even a day since she told you she loved you? You're more perverted than him!" Sango accused, shoving a finger in Miroku's face but keeping her eyes on Inuyasha.

At the same time, the couple that was being falsely accused realized what it was their friends were talking about. Kagome felt like dying; she was sure that if the heat from her mad blush didn't burn her to death, the mental embarrassment would be enough to do it. Inuyasha shouted, "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU SAYING," and raised his claws, ready to kill whoever spoke next.

Another awkward pause arose.

"Just what kind of person do you two think I am? Of course I haven't done that to Kagome! You two better get your minds out of the gutter!" Inuyasha ordered

Sango and Miroku slowly regained the composure. "B-but… you said…" Sango started awkwardly, and Shippo pulled himself out of Kagome's arms and bounded between the two sets of his friends.

"Yeah, Kagome said that they're like my mom and dad. That means they love each other and they all know… right?" He asked innocently, looking back at Kagome. Taking this in from a new perspective, Miroku and Sango calmed down a bit.

"Just drop the whole damn thing. It's not important," Inuyasha exclaimed, locking his eyes on the spot where Sango and Miroku stood rooted to the ground. Sango seemed both embarrassed at her own thoughts and apologetic for them at the same time, but that couldn't be said for the monk, who kept his perverted smile.

In a few moments of silence, everyone had turned to stare at him. As if Miroku's thoughts were actual pictures, Kagome and Sango blushed, Kirara growled her lack of approval, Shippo sighed, and Inuyasha raised a fist.

"That's it, you asked for it!"

Miroku blinked and jumped swiftly to the side, narrowly missing Inuyasha as he landed, fist raking the ground. Instantly, the half demon aimed again, jumping skillfully. The monk spun out of the way barely in time, feeling his friend's furious hands brush against his own.

"I think you are taking this a bit too seriously, Inuyasha," Miroku pronounced calmly, taking a step back as Inuyasha took one forward, "And besides. It's not like you two won't eventually; I am only thinking logically! Ah!" Miroku dashed backwards quickly as Inuyasha started racing after him, almost ready to start using claws. The restraint he had used because Miroku was his friend was fading.

As the two males fought it out, Sango and Kagome shared a look, each with a light blush on their features. "Sango, I think we should leave and let those two deal with it. I can tell you all about how it happened if we do. You too, Shippo," Kagome added, noticing the young kitsune looking up at her expectantly.

"Yay!" Shippo cried, jumping up into Kagome's hold again. Sango nodded, glancing back at Miroku and Inuyasha once before leaving, smiling when Miroku made another miraculous evasion. In seconds, Kirara was at her master's side and all four were walking off.

Some twenty minutes of walking later, Kagome had gone into all the details Sango had wanted. While they discussed this, they had laughed at Shippo's entitling of the topic as 'ew'.

Sango had asked for everything there was to ask about anything. Kagome (amazing as it was) actually complied, even down to the exact way she had felt when Inuyasha had let her rub his ears when she first woke up then their exact conversation. This sufficed, and they had begun to walk back in an emotional silence while Kagome took her time in her memories.

Flashback

"_I'm sorry… I just had the urge to pet 'um," She'd said._

"_As long as you're fine, I don't care what you do to my ears," He had told her. She'd laughed when he pressed his head into her from the pleasure, and once he started to nuzzle he and make that low purr like noise that he insisted was a growl, it only added to her own personal enjoyment of the situation._

And even before that scenario, what was it she had overheard him saying?

"_It's not like I hate you…I think I actually love you, too…"_

End Flashback

"I sure hope he really meant it Sango," Kagome said out loud after some consideration. "It would be horrible if he was just lying. I don't see why he'd have a reason to lie if he thought I was still unconscious though. You do think he meant it, don't you? That Inuyasha really does love me?"

The question had caught Sango by surprise, and she looked at her friend with a half smile until she understood the question, at which point she fully smiled and replied, "Kagome, I know for a fact that he'll always love you more than you'll ever know, because he'll never tell you. If he managed to admit that much, it means he loves you more than what you think even now. Miroku and I have known forever; it was so obvious, it was hard to believe neither of you two realized it."

Kagome grinned and responded quickly, "Just like you and Miroku! I've told you this before, you're being hypocritical."

"Kagome, what does 'hippo-crit-ick-all' mean?" Shippo asked intriguingly, looking up at Kagome's face, having no idea what this weird word meant. He'd heard his friends call each other this many times but never quite understood it.

Before her friend could answer, Sango intervened. "It's what you call someone who is accusing you of something if they are too. For example, if Miroku yelled at someone who was always asking women to bear his children, he'd be a hypocrite, because that's the only thing Miroku does. Which, Kagome, is why I know he doesn't love me. I may like him, but I doubt he could ever truly love me… well, love me for anything but my butt. He can't seem to stop touching that!" She cried out in desperation.

Sighing, Kagome mouthed 'sure' to her friend and rolled her eyes mockingly.

When the girls and their two demons returned, all fighting between Inuyasha and Miroku was over with. Inuyasha was sitting cross-legged with hands inside his sleeves, looking arrogantly away from Miroku, who didn't look as unscarred. He had a swelling on the top of his head and a slightly torn robe which revealed raw, red skin along certain parts of his arms, hands, and face, obviously where Inuyasha had managed to land scrapes.

In perfect unison with the other, Inuyasha and Miroku looked over when the rest of the group stepped into view.

"Inuyasha, I can't believe you took it that seriously…" Kagome mumbled under her breath, wondering how much worse Kouga would have looked if he had said the same things Miroku had.

Inuyasha flicked one of his ears at her comment and ' feh'd ', looking away again, giving the stage to Miroku, who chimed in with amazing speed, "Don't blame him Kagome. It is only because Inuyasha is insecure with his masculinity that he reacts so rashly."

'Not again,' they all thought as Inuyasha growled, getting ready to leap. Kagome rushed forward and ran in front of him the second he stood up.

"No, no! Calm down, he doesn't mean it Inuyasha!" Kagome said frantically as Sango hit Miroku over the head anyway. She grabbed one of his hands and jerked him to the side, causing the hanyou to glare at her. "Come on, let's go. You can cool off this way, and Miroku won't follow us." Inuyasha said nothing and refocused his gaze on Miroku, who was apologizing to Sango, and it seemed he wouldn't comply with Kagome. "Please? Please Inuyasha, just come with me," She begged, tugging at Inuyasha's hand again and giving him her best puppy expression.

Miroku and Sango started yelling at one another in the background. Inuyasha took one more glance at the two and looked back down at Kagome. She said 'please' one more time, taking a single step closer to him. The proximity was enough to make anyone uncomfortable, especially Inuyasha.

"Fine." Squealing with delight at Inuyasha's defeat, Kagome jumped and turned around, walking quickly off into the trees. After a moment of making sure he really did want to follow her, Inuyasha ran off behind Kagome, leaving Sango and Miroku's arguing voices crisp in the air.

When she was being honest with herself, Kagome admitted she had no idea where she was going or what she wanted to do when she got there. At least it would be quiet wherever they were headed.

It was peculiar, Kagome noted, that Inuyasha hadn't asked where she was leading him, and that kind of made her thankful. After all, what would she say? He'd surely get ticked if she had no reason for dragging him away from killing Miroku. And then he asked.

"Uh, Kagome? Where do you think you're going? There's nothing out this way," Inuyasha's voice came, and Inuyasha himself appeared directly at Kagome's right, looking down at her with a funny look in his eyes. "You… you DO have a good reason for leaving, right? If it's not good, I'll let you know I'd have had more fun ending that monk's life."

Kagome smiled and teased, "Now that's not nice; he's our friend after all! Though, now that you mention it, I seem to recall him making questionable comments about us the entire time I had my memory stolen," She confessed with some serious thought. Inuyasha could only nod and growl under his breath, not having enjoyed that one bit. The number of times he had felt like tearing Miroku limb from limb in the past few days was uncountable, he was positive. Maybe they didn't even have numbers for something that great.

"You still didn't answer my question, wench."

This was impossible. No matter how hard she tried over the next couple minutes, Kagome finally realized she couldn't just lead the both of them around in circles for the rest of the day.

"I don't really have a reason for leaving, other than getting away from Miroku, Sango, and the others for a while. And… well, I don't quite know where I'm going either. Happy? You made me admit it."

She waited for his smart and irritated remark, but it never came. Cautiously, Kagome looked over at Inuyasha, but he hadn't taken his eyes from the path. He seemed to be considering something before he met her gaze. "Sango had a point. We didn't eat breakfast. And by the sounds of your stomach, I can tell you're hungry."

About to protest and insist she wasn't hungry at all, a growl that could only be made by an empty stomach passed through the air, and Kagome immediately closed her mouth with a blush that made Inuyasha grin in victory.

Inuyasha instructed Kagome to stay where she was before disappearing into the trees. The girl pitied the first rabbit or fish in a stream that her (and she scolded herself mentally for thinking of him as a possession) half demon came across. Part of her wished he had just gone back to grab her book bag, but the other part wanted Miroku to stay alive, so she was fine. She glanced around herself in comfort for about two minutes.

The trees made perfect backrests and instruments of shade, which Kagome took advantage of. Every now and again her eyes would flutter open and shut from traces of sleepiness, so it was to no surprise that she originally thought the rainbow shower of something that looked suspiciously like dust was only her imagination.

"_Little human girl, did you all honestly think you would ever be allowed your right mind again?_" A slightly agitated but still calm voice came. The familiar tone of it chilled Kagome to the bone, and she started to get afraid really fast.

"Kinenrosu…" She whispered rigidly, looking up.

About six branches directly overhead was the butterfly demon herself, balanced faultlessly on two feet and one hand. The other was securely clasping a glowing orb, fitting the description Myoga had given perfectly. The wings flapped a few times, sending the dust swirling around Kagome, who leapt up and took a step back.

"What do you want? You said you would leave us alone!"

Kinenrosu looked amused and shifted her weight. "_You assumed I would feel compelled to keep a lousy promise to some old human girl? It wasn't even a promise, you foolish child. No, you people offer me too much amusement. Why would I allow such fun to go to such waste? You and the hanyou have expressed your feelings, which will only make things ten times more hilarious when he comes back to see you've forgotten him again! I couldn't have hoped for a better stage for the next scene in this play of yours. I will thank you for that,_" She explained calmly, tensing the shimmering sphere in her hand excitedly and restlessly.

What manner of beast was this? The whole concept of taking not only pleasure but also comedy from other people's pain was as foreign to Kagome as advanced mathematics for Inuyasha. The concept was impossible to grasp from any angle. The frightened girl took another couple of steps backwards, regretting her idea of leaving the safety of her friends.

"Don't you dare do anything to me, you horrible liar," Kagome threatened emptily, "Or we'll really kill you this time. Stay back!" She warned, leaping backwards. Kinenrosu had disappeared from her branch and reappeared a couple feet from her prey, all the while holding the white orb firmly and reaching her other hand out in a measured pace.

"_I promise for real this time that it won't hurt you. It'll hurt less than before, I guarantee. This time I will see to it that a new angle is taken… knowing who you were and thinking you were kidnapped was fun, I'll tell you that much. But can't you see it? See Inuyasha devastated when you think yourself but a regular old villager, knowing the horrors that demons bring? Fearing him much worse than before? I can hear his heart shattering as we speak. And do you know what the most entertaining thing is about all of this?_" No response. "_It's that you can do nothing to prevent it from happening again, and neither can any of your little friends._"

Damn the truth! Kagome stumbled backwards, tripping stupidly over a mixture of her own feet and a root sticking out of the ground, landing unhappily on her back, staring up at the approaching demon with terrified eyes.

And there it was again! That god awful glow, the bright stream of light from Kinenrosu's palm that extended swiftly to the ground Kagome lay upon, equally quickly causing the girl to pass out for a brief time period. The aura of the ball pulsed once and the glow increased, having once again stored up Kagome's true memories. The ball vanished into thin air, and Kinenrosu smiled.

"_Now let us see what this has in store…_" Following suit of her sphere, Kinenrosu snapped her fingers quietly and vanished, leaving no trace of anything, unless you counted the sleeping girl.

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Inuyasha carried two nice sized rabbits in his left hand, which hadn't taken very long to hunt down at all. He wondered for a moment if Kagome liked rabbit, but lost interest in that thought quickly. There was a strange scent in the air that was starting to make him nervous and all the more anxious to get back to Kagome.

Six more minutes of travel later, and Inuyasha jumped perfectly into the tree Kagome had fallen under, rustling the leaves and causing the girl to stir. He muttered something about overly tired girls before dropping the rabbits and leaping down some five feet from the yawning teenager.

"What business do you have falling asleep on me like that?" Inuyasha asked roughly, standing when Kagome's eyes shot open. They seemed to take in the trees then landed on his feet, slowly, oddly and worriedly making their way up to his face, where they grew wide. To his shock, she leapt up and her heart started racing so rapidly that Inuyasha was afraid it might explode.

"Ack, a demon! Unhand me you foul beast!" Kagome cried out, bringing her palm down on Inuyasha's head the moment he stepped into her striking range. "Keep your distance you sickening creature! Where have you taken me? I don't remember anything! What have you done to me!" She demanded hotly. As far as she could be expected to believe, she had obviously been taken as some sort of hostage or sex toy by the despicable animal before her, and he must have erased all of her memories.

"Now you're just being stupid. Kagome, this isn't funny at all. I don't appreciate a false repeat of what Kinenrosu did to you. What are you trying to pull?"

"Nothing you couldn't dream of yourself, tainted being!" She accused, starting to shake furiously as she broke out into a light sweat. It wasn't hard to tell that the demon was loosing his patience with every passing second, and she knew that something like that always led to death, rape, or torture… Maybe she didn't know who she was or where she was from, but she didn't need to know that to be able to understand just how nasty demons could be to a helpless young human girl like herself. They were all sick when it came to women; she knew that for a fact.

She was right though. From where he was, Inuyasha glared at her. He knew for a fact that just last night Kagome had gotten her memories back. Kinenrosu had given them back to her before his eyes, and then left. Kagome had apologized and announced she loved him, and unless he was much mistaken, he had, too. 'That couldn't have been imagined,' he decided, remembering all the small details this time, nothing at all like had happened when Kinenrosu had originally altered his memories. There was no mistake. Yet why was she doing this then? Did she think it was funny pretending to have lost her memory again?

"I'm gonna give you ten seconds to stop messing around or I'm gonna get really angry. One… Two…"

That was it. The girl blanched and her heart skipped a couple beats. There was no avoiding it. She was in the middle of nowhere, being held captive by some demon and therefore utterly helpless and at his mercy in every single way, no matter what that might imply.

We all know that when someone is scared or frightened, they get an adrenalin rush; the fight or flight instinct. One look at the claws the demon owned, the sword hanging perfectly at his side, and the fangs that he was beginning to bare, and the option to fight was definitely out of the question. So she ran.

Inuyasha was literally too stunned to react for some time, and wondered if she really did think this was funny, because he sure as hell didn't. Maybe she was heading back to Miroku and Sango now? But then why had she seriously whacked him over the head?

In minutes Inuyasha was back at the campsite, Miroku explaining something about women to Shippo with Kirara and Sango glaring at him from the corner of their eyes. Kagome was nowhere in sight.

"Sango, Miroku, have you guys seen Kagome? Did she pass through here?"

Miroku looked up. "Wasn't she with you?"

"Answer the question!"

"No," Sango said calmly, standing and walking over towards the flustered hanyou. "Why, did she run off from you?" Inuyasha nodded. "You wouldn't happen to have any idea why, would you?" Now he shook his head, and decided to explain Kagome's initial reaction.

A few minutes later, everyone was staring at him intently with anxious faces. "I think maybe Kinenrosu might have had another go at her. We have to find her at once, before anything else can happen to her Inuyasha. Run ahead, we'll catch up," Miroku said with a determined face. Inuyasha nodded and darted off, straining to locate Kagome's scent and follow the trail through the woods.

Kagome, meanwhile, wasn't fairing nearly as well. Her heart was still thumping a million beats a minute and she was running so quickly that her legs felt like they might give out at any moment. She didn't dare look behind her in fear that if she did she would see the face of her captor.

"Not… fair…" She panted, tears starting to form in her eyes. The forest seemed to have no end, and that demon was bound to catch up with her if she couldn't find help soon. Since she had fled it only made sense that the moment he caught her, he would kill her painfully. Those claws she had seen on his hands, those horrible claws… each possible of killing her with the slightest will of their owner. What was to stop him from killing her now that she had disobeyed him?

The endless forest cut off abruptly, no thinning of trees or anything before it broke out into grass, rice and other fields, and the walls of – thankfully – a human founded civilization, where she could see people were working in the grasses right now.

_A village, great! They can protect me from that demon before he finds me, _Kagome thought happily, rushing towards the walls of the unfamiliar place. She glanced behind her shoulder nervously, glad to see that the demon with the red clothes hadn't followed her this far. Perhaps she would be safe for the time being…

"You there! Who are you and what do you want?" A voice called from by the gate the village possessed. The man seemed ready to attack her if necessary, so she halted and blinked.

"I'm… uh… I think… Well, I'm not quite sure what my name is, but I'm running away from a demon that's hunting me down! I think he kidnapped me or something, and I'm pretty sure he's going to come after me," She explained hurriedly, glancing backwards every several words to see if the red shape she had run from was anywhere in sight. It wasn't.

He looked her over a few times and motioned for her to come forward.

"Then you can find safety here for some time. Our defenses are strong enough to hold off any demon for you, I assure you. But I have a question… Why do you dress in such strange clothes, unless you too are a demon?"

At this his eyes narrowed and he seemed closer to attacking her than before. Kagome frowned and reasoned, "I'm not really sure about that either… I just kind of woke up in the forest and the demon was all over me, like trying to kill me or torture me, or… or something worse. Maybe he gave me the clothes."

Even though he looked unbelieving, the man took a step forward, waving a dismissive hand. Some people had started to stare at her and with his gesture they continued along with their chores.

"My name is Anshin. And I expect a name before I let you into this town," He stated.

"Umm… I think… I think it might be Mikomi…" She lied unsurely, trying to look depressed and upset that she could only now remember a name, even though she was entirely making one from random. Anshin blinked again and looked her over before calling over a young woman.

"Kitai, show this lady into the village. She claims that a demon is in her pursuit," he said in an unhurried voice. Kagome blinked as a lady dressed in a very non-fancy set of clothes with dark hair pulled into a bun took her hand sharply and pulled her towards the safety of the town, suddenly made weary by the fact that a demon might be on its way to attack the village.

'Mikomi' followed graciously, looking behind herself once again and sighing in relief when she still saw no one leaping over the trees to confiscate her.

Kitai led Kagome through the opened gates and the field workers followed quickly after the news. The village was well kept and tidy, everything looking just how it should. This could probably be due to the fact that they had that protective wall that was being watched by armed warriors even now. A small group of young children ran across Kagome's and Kitai's path as they played, causing both women to smile.

"You should be okay in here. Were you telling the truth when you said you were captured by some male demon, Mikomi-san?" She asked.

The name sounded wrong when this other person used it, but Kagome didn't care. She just wanted protection from whatever nasty intentions that demon had for her. True, he hadn't looked or acted particularly evil, but she could care less. Mikomi nodded shakily, glancing backwards at the gates that were being closed and Anshin ushered the last person in. He, however, remained outside, ready to fire his arrows or draw his blade the moment the demon came forth from the trees.

Mikomi felt a tug at her hand, and she looked over to see Kitai gesturing towards the wall. "You should get to see what happens if that demon of yours comes. I can't even fathom what he could have done to you. I'm so sorry," she said sympathetically. Mikomi shrugged and allowed herself to be guided to the ladder, which she climbed up with great speed. All the people waited to see if the new girl had lied to them, or if something was genuinely coming.

And they weren't disappointed. Mikomi squeaked a little and ducked down so that only her eyes were visible; the red clad demon from before had burst through the trees and into the fields she had stood in only a couple minutes before. Anshin tensed his weapon, ready for anything.

"Hey you!" Inuyasha demanded, pointing at the person across from him. "A girl ran by here, I can tell by the scent. Are you keeping her in this town, because I need her!"

The sword that Anshin had was slowly being drawn.

"So, she told the truth! Despicable creature, how dare you stand before me and ask me to hand over to you a young girl you so obviously captured."

"Uh…" the demon said stupidly, trying to understand what this guy had just told him. When he did, Inuyasha formed a fist and waved it at him. "I can smell Kagome, so don't bother trying to lie to me, you idiot. I want her back right now. If you don't hand her over willingly, I'm gonna have to kick your ass!"

Anshin narrowed his eyes and Mikomi squeaked again, wondering to what extent this creature had defiled her without her knowledge; he seemed pretty intent on getting her back for more. This was what she had been afraid of.

"Attack me if you will, demon. You will never lay claim to that maiden again!"

Another moment of silence in which Inuyasha's eyes grew extremely wide. "L-Lay… claim? _WHAT _do you think I did to her!"

"Don't pretend it didn't happen. I've dealt with many a demon like you in my time, each bent on causing pain, killing as many humans as possible, and if the opportunity arises to rape defenseless human girls after kidnapping them from their villages! You're behavior is sickening."

'Okay, what the hell has Kagome been telling these people? What did Kinenrosu do to her this time? These fucking idiots think I'd do that to someone? I couldn't do that to anyone, especially not Kagome,' Inuyasha thought angrily, beginning to growl and signaling Anshin to draw his sword fully. "I'm gonna hurt you," Inuyasha muttered, raising a clawed hand. This person had just really pissed him off, and he was at least going to give him some serious injuries.

The village protector barely had time to hop out of the way when Inuyasha jumped at him with brandished claws bellowing, "GIVE ME BACK KAGOME!"

Anshin flashed his blade, causing Inuyasha to stop for a moment and eye him. "The girl who we rescued from you is not called Kagome. She gave us her name as Mikomi, you lying fiend! Taste my blade!" He cried, swiping at Inuyasha quickly.

After dodging easily, the half demon demanded angrily, "How about you taste my claws," and brought them down painfully hard on Anshin's back, causing the man to cry out in agony and wave his sword, only resulting in his opponent leaping back a couple meters then resting on hands and feet, eyeing Anshin distastefully.

"Give her to me now before you really piss me off," he repeated, cracking his knuckles for emphasis.

"You will never get her back in your clutches!" Anshin said heroically. A few arrows were let loose from the wall. Inuyasha looked up sharply and growled as he leapt backwards, unwilling to give up. He was going to get Kagome back somehow, right now.

He jumped forward, aiming to strike Anshin in the chest just hard enough to push him backwards and knock him unconscious so he could be used as a bribe for the return of Kagome, but that plan was soon crushed.

Two more arrows were fired, giving Inuyasha only a second to react or be hit. He kicked off of the ground, narrowly avoiding the arrows, but not noticing that he had picked up more force from doing that. Too much force. Inuyasha was still aimed straight for Anshin, but his focus had been distracted, not giving him time to look where he was going.

In seconds, Inuyasha had connected with his original target, but more than three times as hard as he had planned. Anshin screamed in anguish when he felt the claws shoot through his heart like a sword, killing him after a few seconds of silent pain and agony.

The people on the wall either gasped or screamed, and Mikomi jumped back, not wanting to see anymore of what the demon was capable of. She had just brought upon the death of this man.

No one noticed it, but Inuyasha was shocked into silence, not able to comprehend that he had just killed this person, even though he could feel the warm, fresh blood running down his hand that had disappeared inside of the body. He hastily pulled his hand out, and Anshin dropped to the earth in a bloody puddle that only continued to grow.

'What… what have I done!' He thought frantically, looking down at the crumpled body at his feet, the blood dripping from his claws.

"You… you monster! You killed Anshin!" Someone from the town screamed, releasing his bow at the demon. Caught up in all of this and distracted as he was, Inuyasha came so close to being hit that he could feel the feathers of the arrow brush against his clean hand when he leapt away.

Not long after, plenty of arrows were shot in one swarm. Inuyasha didn't even feel like taking Kagome back right now after what he had done. He hadn't killed an innocent human this purposefully for as long as he could remember. The confused hanyou ran back for the trees not a moment too soon, for the arrows embedded themselves in the place he had been only a second earlier.

Several armed people descended the wall to fetch their dead leader. They couldn't have been more afraid or angry, not at all positive that the demon that had so easily killed Anshin was not going to jump back out and slaughter them as well. There was a mixture of relief and disappointment when the demon did not return; they were spared their lives, true, but the people would have liked to take their revenge. They carried Anshin's body back into the protection of the town with a respectful silence.

"I'm… s-sorry…"

Kitai looked over at the girl, who was crying lightly, not wanting to meet the eyes of anyone. They would surely hate her after bringing such a formidable enemy upon them.

"Mikomi, do not apologize. Had Anshin not been trying to aid you, he still would have attacked such a demon upon sight. It is not your fault. If he had not stolen you from your village, it would have been someone else, and this probably would have happened anyway. The only thing we can do now is pray that that demon is destroyed before it can wreck more havoc. Anshin would not want anyone to skip a heartbeat over him, but strive to kill what had killed him. No matter what anyone does or says," Kitai continued softly, "I will make it my own duty to keep you safe until we know for sure that the beast is slain."

Her kind words encouraged the girl to look up with a forced smile. "Then I'll try not to be a burden… I'd love to help with his burial, even if I only knew him for about a minute. I still feel personally responsible."

"You can do what you wish. Just make me a promise: no matter how bad you feel, I don't want you to even consider trying to kill the demon without at least a few trained warriors with you. That creature could kill you with a slight movement of the claws or bite of the fangs, and you'd have no more say in the matter."

"But–!"

"No. No," the woman said, trying to keep back some of her tears, but failing. "I was told to take you into the village, and I plan to help protect you as Anshin would have wanted. You will stay safe until the demon is killed, do you understand?"

Mikomi nodded slowly, looking around herself and hugging her knees to her chest. "I do." Her response was good enough for Kitai, who smiled and offered her a hand up, which Mikomi took gingerly.

The two women made their way down to the town, following the crowds mostly. The whispering about the horrid demon that had been brought upon them by the new girl in skimpy clothes hit Mikomi's emotions hard, but Kitai kept her own mind unclouded and reminded the girl to ignore them.

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"Inuyasha… Inuyasha, why do you smell like human blood? Why do you have blood on your claws? Why don't you have Kagome? What were you running from? Why-?" Shippo was cut off from his inquiries when Inuyasha hit him over the head with his clean hand.

Sango and Miroku had been called back, wondering why on earth Inuyasha was returning so soon, and without their friend no less. They hadn't noticed the blood that was still dripping from his claws and were now curious and appalled.

"What… on earth did you do?" Miroku asked, walking over to their distraught friend, who sat down quickly.

"Kagome's never gonna come now. I killed someone. Its not even like I meant to!" He yelled angrily, more at himself than at Miroku. "Fucking idiots in that stupid town… they wouldn't give me Kagome and this idiot tried to fight me. Stupid, dumb, idiotic idiots in that town… fucking shot at me and made me loose my goddamn concentration. The guy who wanted to fight, stupid human reflexes; didn't get out of my way!"

Miroku and Sango did a double take, staring wide-eyes at Inuyasha.

"You… you don't mean to say…?" Sango said shakily, dreading the answer as she took a couple uncertain steps towards the half demon, who dropped down onto the ground and crossed his legs, keeping both hands out of his sleeves to pervert any staining from the blood that was still dripping every once and a while. He glared up at Sango with a warning look, but it said everything. "I can't believe… believe you killed a person!" She finished, horrified.

"IT'S NOT LIKE I WANTED TO! HE DIDN'T MOVE OUT OF MY WAY!" Inuyasha shouted angrily.

The rest of the group blinked and sighed. Inuyasha gave them each their own glare before looking away, murmuring something distasteful under his breath.

They all knew that it was now pointless for Inuyasha to try and go get Kagome back, and doubted if the people would be willing to accept strangers anytime soon. This posed an uncanny problem. Perhaps if they gave it a night or two then they might accept a monk and a demon slayer into their village and take the girl with them?

Miroku and Sango seemed to have the same idea and smiled weakly at each other then at Inuyasha, who refused to look at anyone and started to try and get the blood off of his hand; the smell had long begun to make him nauseous.

"Sango and I shall try and see if we can get Kagome from them in a few days. Inuyasha… please try not to act rashly around the village or the villagers until then?"

Inuyasha looked up at them and glared but said nothing, shaking his hand frantically and causing droplets of the blood to fly everywhere. He growled to himself and jumped up and off in a hurry; only water could get all the blood off (even if not the smell) and he needed to find a stream or something.

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After several hours, a fitting grave had been dug for Anshin inside of the town, and people we generally hanging around that area. People felt it best to hurry up at get the burial over with, no matter how important Anshin had been to them. In short, no one wanted to have the fact of his death pressed right up into their faces for much longer.

In a couple more hours, the body had been buried and a fair number of the villagers stood by for the event. Mikomi decided at the last moment that she wanted no part of this and left. Kitai had invited the girl to stay in her house for as long as she needed to get her memories back, or until they were sure that the demon that had hunted her down was out of the way. Currently, the girl was sitting down in a spare room that was not quite designed as a sleeping chamber but would do good enough.

Her back was against the wall and she was hugging her legs to her chest once more. Mikomi had inspected every inch of her body that she could repeatedly. To her surprise, the only slight scratches or bruises on it were ones that she knew she had inflicted herself during her flee from the demon. She could only begin to ponder why he hadn't visibly laid a hand on her; maybe he had covered it up very well? Maybe he had been careful so that she didn't have any proof he had ever hurt her?

'Why does this have to happen to me? Did I do something bad to deserve this? Kidnapped and probably violated by some violent, evil beast… Caused an innocent man to be killed at the claws of the demon…' She couldn't believe her luck.

How could the villagers not all hate her after that? Kitai was too nice for her own good. Mikomi was willing to bet that if she didn't leave soon, she'd end up killing the kind lady somehow! Hell, she'd end up bringing their village to the ground overnight. What was to say that the stupid demon with those stupid red clothes wasn't going to come back and steal her away, but not before he had his sick pleasures from slaughtering all the people of this place before he left?

When that thought reared its ugly head, she shot her eyes open wide and turned to stare at one of the five candles that lit the little room. It didn't take a genius to realize that nothing was as it should be.

"I have to leave… I need to get away from here… just do the noble thing and be the only one to die, save all these people. Run away during the night and make sure you get…"

"Mikomi, what are you talking about?"

The girl glanced over at the door, where Kitai was eyeing her with utmost concern.

"Kitai-san, you people must not want me staying to bring more misfortune to your village. One of your respected men has been killed, only because of my being here! It may be best for every one of you if I were merely to leave and take my chances with the demon. I cannot feel right as long as I stay here, knowing that the village will be tormented by some vile demon because of it. Please, let me leave so I can help you. I never thought any harm could come of this, but I was wrong."

Kitai smiled softly but didn't move to comfort the girl opposite her. "Do not think that for a second. I told you this is what Anshin would have asked for, and you cannot change my mind. Though, I shall admit, it may be more hazardous to us than normal. Equal to your feeling, I couldn't allow you to leave knowing that by doing so I would very probably be risking an innocent young girl in both body and mind to a reckless monster. How could I live with myself with such guilt? You will stay here like I said before, and I will personally make sure you are fine.

An emotional silence filled the room and no one attempted to break in for a bit. "I'll fetch you all the sleeping necessities, and then you can get a well deserved sleep. You've been through an ordeal I could not possibly imagine."

Without further conversation, Kitai left to gather up a sleeping mat and a spare blanket. Mikomi was thankful for her kind words, but it really didn't make her feel much better. An now- as the cruel fates would have it- she would have to keep her horrible thoughts to herself all night, and she was positive that the thoughts would only get worse as the time she spent here increased. Logically, the longer her captor had to wait before she was returned, the angrier he would get, and the worse off she and the village would be.

Several minutes later the woman returned and set up a place for her guest to sleep. Before she left to get to her own bed, Kitai smiled encouragingly at the distraught youth.

'I hope these people forgive me,' Mikomi thought pitifully as she climbed atop the mat and pulled the blankets up, slowly being taken over by a slumber filled with terrible nightmares.

The following morning was not much better either. Mikomi had at least been convinced to eat a little something (she ate incredibly politely, considering she had skipped dinner and had never had lunch on the previous day), but not much else.

"Do not worry yourself over these matters. How many times must I tell you?" Kitai repeated as she led Mikomi around the town, trying to show her the locations of the important things.

Mikomi stared at her and said dully, "I've said it a hundred times. I can never, EVER feel truly content here. The village could be attacked at any second due to me… doesn't that bother you?"

Kitai shook her head and she turned her direction. "This is day number two of however many days you plan to spend here. Chances are that the demon that has you worried won't be slain easily, so he will probably be here as long as you are. I may as well get used to it, and so should you. If I can accept this, why can you not?"

"Because it's wrong, that's why," Mikomi said sadly, shifting her gaze to the ground.

"You may think that now, but you're mistaken. Now come, we need to get you something else to wear… my clothes might be a bit too big," Kitai said plainly, dismissing the argument for what was possibly the fiftieth time.


End file.
